PROVENANCE: Fortier sale, Paris, 1770; Lord Cleve, Rt. Honorable Baroness Darcy de Knayth, before 1964; Sotheby's, London, July 8, 1964, lot 168A; Julius Weitzner, London, 1965; BJU, 1965.

Dolci began his training in the Florentine studio of Jacopo Vignali at the age of nine. In 1648 he became a member of the Accademia del Disegno and received many commissions. His gift for portraiture brought him to the attention of Duke Cosimo III de Medici, who patronized him throughout his career. Besides painting some very fine portraits, Dolci was renowned for his deeply devout paintings meant, as his biographer Filippo Baldinucci writes, "to inspire Christian piety in those that saw them."

This stunning Madonna and Child is a magnificent example of the kind of devotional picture Baldinucci refers to. As David Steel has aptly described it, the detailed rendering of the textures, the delicate handling of light crowned with the use of gold leaf in the halos, and the permeating sentimentality places this painting among the artist's very best devotional works. The blessing gesture of the Christ Child as He engages the viewer with His eyes heightens the impact and emphasizes the original function of this image as an aid to prayer. The heightened detail in the still-life elements of the sewing basket and pillow create an intense tangibility, aptly reflecting the baroque style that used religious images for their emotional appeal.

Dolci ended his life in a melancholic depression due to comments made by Luca Giordano concerning his slow working method. Baldinucci writes that when Giordano visited Dolci's studio in 1682 he unwittingly intimated that Dolci painted much too slowly to be financially successful. According to Baldinucci, Dolci "was assailed by a host of sad thoughts," which seemingly led to deep depression and death.