Dossi (or Dosso) (c. 1479-c. 1542)

Italian painter brothers. They were important in the development of landscape in painting. They excelled in fanciful composition, a somewhat romantic background often being enveloped in a strange coppery light. Battista was the landscape painter while Dossi painted the figures. Both worked for the Duke of Ferrara, for whom they painted frescoes, religious scenes, and portraits.

They were pupils of Lorenzo Costa. Both spent time in Venice, where they were influenced by Giorgione and Titian, and also worked in Mantua, but mainly in Ferrara and Modena. They were also in Rome, where Battista worked in Raphael Sanzio's studio. Versions of Circe (Borghese, Rome; National Gallery, Washington) and Muse inspiring a Court Poet (National Gallery, London) are among their principal works. Their work is original and has beautiful colouring.

The painters were friends of the poet Ludovico Ariosto, who mentions them in Orlando furioso, from which they took subjects.