DOSSALE. — The term derives from the barbarous Latin dossalis; it is the term used to designate the cloth employed to cover walls, seats, and altars. A decorative element placed behind the altar. In primitive churches, d. did not exist. Only when altars were set against walls or placed at the back of the apse did the need arise to adorn the bare wall with a d.
In the West, from the end of the 11th century, the d. appeared above the altar as a receptacle for relics or sacred objects. It was generally movable, made of metal or painted wood, or covered with fabric. From the beginning of the 12th century, fixed d. appeared, consisting of a thin, worked panel that concealed a reliquary. In time, metal and precious-stone d. were replaced by those carved in marble, permanently placed on the mensa and also supporting the Crucifix. Then, in the 13th and 14th centuries, large painted d. appeared, with carved and gilded wooden frames, divided into three or more sections: genuine paintings, hence the names triptychs and polyptychs, until in the 15th century a single painting (pala), often richly framed, prevailed on altars. In the 17th and 18th centuries, angels, allegorical groups, and rich ornamentation were added to the frames of altarpieces.
D. also denotes the carpet or tapestry placed to cover the backs of beds, chests, and chairs.
It is also used of a cloth that envelops a missal or other book like a sheath. — Vedi tavv. CXVII-CXVIII. Pietro Gazzola
DOSSI, CARLO. — Pseudonym of Pisani Dossi Alberto, writer, born at Zenevredo (Pavia) on 27 March 1849, died at Cardina (Como) on 16 November 1910.
At the age of nineteen he printed his first book, l'Altrieri (Milan 1868), and in 1871 the Vita di Alberto Pisani: two autobiographical works rich in intimate poetry, but artificial and arbitrary in expression and syntax, so as to earn D. the designation of “bizarre.” He achieved greater success with the utopian novel La colonia felice (there 1874), which he later disowned and in which the gradual formation of a complete human society is narrated, arising from a group of deportees who had escaped to distant regions. Having passed from art to diplomacy, D. became secretary to F. Crispi, plenipotentiary minister in Bogotá and subsequently in Athens, where he became passionate about archaeological research. Published posthumously were the Note azzurre (there 1912), a vast diary written continuously for nearly forty years, which revealed D. as a thinker, often acute and evocative. But the most genuine D. appears in the sketches and narratives of Gocce d'inchiostro (Rome 1880), where he reveals himself as a subtle observer of exquisite sensibility. Some of his erotic and irreligious pages seem more a concession to the fashion of the time than the expression of a sincere conviction. D.'s work is situated in relation to late Lombard Romanticism.