Dossi, Dosso (Giovanni Luteri) (c.1490?-1542). The outstanding
painter of the Ferrarese School in the 16th century. His early
life and training are obscure, but Vasari's assertion that he
was born around 1474 is now thought unlikely. He is first
recorded in 1512 at Mantua (the name `Dosso' probably comes from
a place near Mantua--he is not called `Dosso Dossi' until the
18th century). By 1514 he was in Ferrara, where he spent most of
the rest of his career, combining with the poet Ariosto in
devising court entertainments, triumphs, tapestries, etc. Dosso
painted various kinds of pictures--mythological and religious
works, portraits, and decorative frescos--and is perhaps most
important for the part played in his work by landscape, in which
he continues the romantic pastoral vein of Giorgione and Titian.
The influence from these two artists is indeed so strong that it
is thought he must have been in Venice early in his career.
Dosso's work, however, has a personal quality of fantasy and an
opulent sense of col