Lodovico Dolce facts for kids

Lodovico Dolce

Lodovico Dolce (born around 1508 or 1510, died 1568) was an Italian writer and expert on painting. He was a very active humanist in Venice, meaning he was interested in many subjects like art, literature, and history. He wrote, translated, and edited many books. Today, he is mostly remembered for his book Dialogue on Painting, also known as L'Aretino (published in 1557). He was also a friend of the famous painter Titian.

Biography of Lodovico Dolce

Lodovico Dolce was likely born in 1510. His early life was not easy because his father died when he was only two years old. He received help from two important families, the Loredano and Cornaro families, who helped him study in Padua.

After finishing his studies, Dolce found work in Venice with a printing company owned by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari. He became one of the busiest thinkers and writers in Venice during the 1500s. One expert, Claudia Di Filippo Bareggi, says that over 36 years, Dolce was involved in publishing 96 of his own books, 202 books by other writers, and at least 54 translations. He was good at making complex information easy to understand for people who didn't have time to learn ancient Greek and Latin.

Lodovico Dolce had a very productive life as a scholar and author. He passed away in January 1568 and was buried in the church of San Luca in Venice.

Lodovico Dolce's Works

Dolce worked on almost every type of writing popular at the time. This included:

• Epic and lyric poetry (long and short poems)
• Chivalric romances (stories about knights and heroes)
• Comedies and tragedies (plays)
• Prose dialogues (conversations between characters)
• Treatises (detailed writings on topics like women, marriage, memory, the Italian language, gems, painting, and colors)
• Encyclopedic summaries (short versions of big topics like Aristotle's philosophy and world history)
• Historical works about important people from his time and earlier writers like Cicero, Ovid, Dante, and Boccaccio.

From 1542 until his death in 1568, Dolce edited 184 books for the Giolito publishing house. These books included works by famous authors such as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Pietro Bembo, and Lodovico Ariosto. He also translated many works into Italian from authors like Homer, Euripides, Cicero, Horace, and Virgil.

Writings on Art: L'Aretino

L'Aretino (1557) is Dolce's most important book about art. Some people thought it was written to challenge Vasari's famous book, Lives of the Artists, which didn't even include Titian in its first edition. However, experts have shown that Dolce's book was actually written much earlier.

L'Aretino is written as a dialogue, which means it's a conversation between two characters. These characters are Pietro Aretino, who shares the Venetian view on art, and Giovanni Francesco Fabrini, a Florentine humanist. The book starts by discussing the main ideas of art. Then, it compares the famous painters Raphael and Michelangelo. It also talks about other artists of the time and ends with a biography and praise for Titian.

From the book, it's clear that Dolce believed Titian was the greatest artist of his century. Raphael came next, admired for his varied and balanced style, followed by Michelangelo, who Dolce saw as having some flaws. It's not clear how well Dolce knew Titian when he wrote the artist's biography, which was the first one ever published about Titian.

Dolce strongly supported the High Renaissance style of art and was critical of Mannerism, a later art style. The book was probably written with help from Pietro Aretino. Dolce's book was admired as an art theory guide until the 1700s. More recently, people value it for the information it gives about artists' lives.

Tragedies and Comedies

As a writer of plays, Dolce wrote many tragedies, which are serious plays with sad endings. Some of his tragedies include Giocasta (1549), Thieste, Medea, and Didone. An English version of Giocasta was performed in London in 1566. His tragedy Didone (1547) was very important in Italy and influenced later plays.

He also wrote several comedies, which are plays meant to be funny. These include Il Marito, Il Ragazzo, and La Fabritia.

Historical Works

Two of Dolce's history books were very popular in the 1500s: the Life of Charles V (1561) and the Life of Ferdinand I (1566). His History of the World (Giornale delle historie del mondo, published after his death in 1572) is a long list of important historical and literary events, organized by each day of the year. It covers events from the beginning of civilization up to his own time.

Treatises and Romances

Dolce's Treatise on Gems (Trattato delle gemme, 1565) talks about the physical qualities of jewels and the special powers people believed they had from the stars. He also wrote several books about language, including Osservationi nella volgar lingua (1550). This book studied Italian language and grammar, using examples from Dante and Boccaccio.

In the world of chivalric romance, Dolce rewrote several traditional stories. These include Sacripante (1536) and Primaleone, figliuolo di Palmerino (1562). He also wrote an epic poem about Aeneas, called Enea, which was published the year he died.

Edited and Translated Works

Dolce edited many authors, but he focused a lot on Lodovico Ariosto. He edited three of Ariosto's comedies and his famous poem Orlando furioso. For Orlando furioso, Dolce also published books to explain the difficult parts and analyze its language.

Even though some people questioned if Dolce knew Greek, he translated works by several Greek authors into Italian. He used Latin translations to help him. These included Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius and Homer's Odyssey. He also translated many Latin authors, sometimes freely and other times very accurately, like for Seneca's ten tragedies.

Ronnie H. Terpening, who wrote a book about Dolce, said that Dolce had a truly valuable career. He believed that without Dolce's hard work, Italian literature would be much less rich. People often described Dolce as "tireless," "peaceful," and "sweet," which are high praises for someone living in such a busy time.

See also

In Spanish: Lodovico Dolce para niños