d belonged to a family of honourable tradition but
decadent fortune. He received a good education, and early undertook the
task of maintaining himself by his pen. Translations from Greek and
Latin epics, satires, histories, plays and treatises on language and art
followed each other in rapid succession, till the whole number amounted
to upwards of seventy works. But he is now mainly memorable as the
author of _Marianna_, a tragedy from the life of Herod, which was recast
in French by Tristan and by Voltaire, and still keeps a place on the
stage. Four licentious comedies, _Il Ragazzo_ (1541), _Il Capitano_
(1545), _Il Marito_ (1560), _Il Ruffiano_ (1560), and seven of Seneca's
tragedies complete the list of his dramatic efforts. In one epic--to
translate the title-page--"he has marvellously reduced into _ottava
rima_ and united into one narrative the stories of the Iliad and the
Aeneid"; in another he devotes thirty-nine cantos to a certain
Primaleone, son of Palmerius; in a third he celebrates the first
exploits of Count Orlando; and in a fourth he sings of the Paladin
Sacripante. A life of the emperor Charles V. and a similar account of
Ferdinand I., published respectively in 1560 and 1566, are his chief
historical productions; and among his minor treatises it is enough to
mention the _Osservazioni sulla lingua volgare_ (1550); the _Dialogo
della pittura_ (1557); and the _Dialogo nel quale si ragiona del modo di
accrescar la memoria_ (1552).

DOLCI, CARLO, or CARLINO (1616-1686), Italian painter, was born in
Florence in May 1616. He was the grandson of a painter on the mother's
side, and became a disciple of Jacopo Vignali; and when only eleven
years of age he attempted a whole figure of St John, and a head of the
infant Christ, which received extraordinary approbation. He afterwards
painted a portrait of his mother, and displayed a new and delicate style
which brought him into notice, and procured him extensive employment at
Florence (from which city he hardly ever moved) and in other parts of
Italy. Dolci used his pencil chiefly in sacred subjects, and bestowed
much labour on his pictures. In his manner of working he was remarkably
slow. It is said that his brain was affected by seeing Luca Giordano, in
1682, despatch more business in four or five hours than he could have
executed in as many months, and that he hence fell into a state of
hypochondria, which compelled him to relinquish his art, and soon
brought