(b Florence, 25 May 1616; d Florence, 17 Jan. 1686). Florentine painter. He was intensely devout and most of his paintings are of religious subjects, done in a cloyingly sweet and meticulously smooth style. They were enormously popular in his lifetime (many of his favourite compositions exist in multiple versions), but have appealed less to modern taste. His portraits, on the other hand, are now much admired for their sober objectivity. Dolci's work was highly prized by contemporary British visitors to Florence, and one of these, the physician Sir John Finch, made an impressive collection of it. Dolci painted a portrait of Finch and one of his friend Sir Thomas Baines (c.1665–70), both in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.