Dolce Far Niente

'Dolce far niente' is an old Italian expression meaning 'sweet/pleasant doing nothing'. This fancy way of saying 'enjoying being a lazy ol'mare' inspired the hell out artists. PRB founding member William Holman Hunt, for example, used it as a title for this 1866 painting of his then-fiancee Annie Miller (later changing the face to his new wife, Fanny... the fickle swine).

Pre-Raph-u-like / Neo-Classicist John William Godward created this beautiful painting in 1904, and named it.. you guessed it.. 'Dolce Far Niente', or the more snappier 'Sweet Nothings'.

... As did he this earlier painting in 1897 (which I love with the fire of a thousand overheated netbooks). Hello new desktop wallpaper! Yes, work colleagues, it's a nipple. Deal with it.

American artist and owner of awesome name, Will Hicok Low (1853-1932), was also bitten by the 'Niente'-bug...

As was Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema in 1882.

And John Singer Sargent in 1907.

Ditto Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847 – 1928).











I think you get the point.

Anyhoo, my personal favourite artistic depiction of sublime laziness is J. W. Waterhouse's 'Dolce Far Niente' (1880).

... well actually it's his second attempt at making sloth sexy. His first was in 1879, and is still used as a perfect example of foreshortening - a device often used by Waterhouse, most notably in 'Saint Eulalia' (1885). 

 

The Italian aesthetic of the 1880 painting was directly inspired by Rosetti, but the lazypants theme was all Waterhouse. Apparently he felt the idleness of the pose liberated the subject from a restrictive narrative and/or morality. Put simply, it allowed him to just set about making them look all pretty 'n' junk without having to explain why.

In a similar vein, my interpretation of 'Dolce Far Niente' sees my lady chilling out, inside a crack in a wall, at the end of my mum's back garden. Yep. Nothing weird there. She's even brought a tiny pillow, a tiny fan and a tiny pigeon; the bare essentials for any fan of doing sweet F.A. all day.

Watermark not on print-for-sale through Etsy.com.