Dosso Dossi

(b ?Ferrara, c. 1490; d Ferrara, 1541-2). Although responsive to a wide range of outside influences, the most important of which were probably those of Giorgione in Venice and Raphael in Rome, he was an artist of great originality with a strong feeling for effects of light and colour. Landscape plays a prominent and highly expressive role in his work. He was employed, as were also the poets Matteomaria Boiardo (?1441-94) and Ludovico Ariosto, at the court of Ferrara, which was internationally renowned for its culture, especially its musical life and collections of art: one of his best-known works is an illustration of a magical scene from Ariosto's poetry, Melissa (1520s; Rome, Gal. Borghese), a painting of opulent colour and texture.

Part of the Dossi family

See the Abbreviations for further details.