Lotto, Lorenzo  ( born c. 1480 , Venice—died  Venice [Italy]—died 1556 , Loreto, Papal States )  late Renaissance Italian painter known for his perceptive portraits and mystical paintings of religious subjects. He represents one of the best examples of the fruitful relationship between the Venetian and Central Italian (Marche) schools.



Madonna and St. Peter


Martyr (1503) and the


Portrait of Bishop Bernardo de’



Between 1508 and 1512, Lotto was in Rome, where he was influenced by Raphael, who was painting the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican palace. In the “Entombment” Entombment (1512) at Jesi and the “Transfiguration” Transfiguration (c. 1513) at Recanati, Lotto abandoned the dryness and cool colour of his earlier style and adopted a fluid method and a blondrich, joyful colouring.

After 1513 Lotto lived primarily in Bergamo, where his style matured. His most successful works of this period are the altarpieces in S. San Bernardino and S. Santo Spirito, which show a new inventiveness, a greater competence in rendering light and shade, and a preference for opulent colours. The compositions of his Bergamo works are more self-assured, and the “Susanna Susanna and the Elders” Elders (1517; Contini Bonacossi Collection, Florence) exhibits his growing faculty for narrative paintingability as a narrative painter.

In 1526 or 1527 Lotto returned to Venice, where he was briefly influenced by the glowing palette and grand compositional schemes of Titian. This is best seen in his “StSt. Nicholas of Bari in Glory” Glory (1529; Church of the Carmini, Venice). But Lotto’s main interest was in the forceful depiction of emotions and psychological insights. This is evident in his many portraits and especially in the “Annunciation” Annunciation (c. 1527; Sta. Maria sopra Mercanti Recanati), with its agitated figures, swirling drapery, dramatic lighting, and neglect of scant interest in perspective.

In Venice, Lotto had been snubbed by the circle of Titian, and in 1529 he moved to the Marches, where he could paint without censure. In this period his work became even more emotional, and many works, such as the “Madonna Madonna of the Rosary” Rosary (1539; Cingoli) and the “Crucifixion” Crucifixion (1531; Monte San Giusto), exhibit a highly charged mysticism in their nervous, crowded compositions and lurid pale colouring. His numerous portraits of this period are among his most incisively descriptive of the sitter’s character; and the “Madonna Madonna Enthroned with Four Saints” Saints (c. 1540; Sta. Maria della Piazza, Ancona) shows Lotto at the height of his narrative power.

Lotto was back in Venice in 1540, and his “StSt. Antonino Giving Alms” Alms (1542; SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice) shows a renewed interest in Titian. But in 1549 he returned to the MarchesMarche, and his life became increasingly unsettled. He had a nervous, irritable temperament and seemed unable to stay long in one place or to sustain permanent relationships. In his old age he was destitute and was forced to paint numbers on hospital beds to earn a living. In 1554, partially blind, he entered the Santa Casa in Loreto as an oblate member to escape his critics and his debtswith a permission to reside and work there. There he began one of his most sensitive masterpieces, the “Presentation Presentation in the Temple, which remained unfinished at his death.