Lorenzo Lotto

{"Id":819,"Name":"Lorenzo Lotto","Biography":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELOTTO, LORENZO\u003C/strong\u003E (c. 1480-1556), Italian painter, is variously stated to have been born at \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.provincia.bergamo.it/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EBergamo\u003C/a\u003E [\u003Ca href=\u0022http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en\u0026sl=it\u0026u=http://www.provincia.bergamo.it/\u0026prev=/search%3Fq%3DBergamo%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEN\u003C/a\u003E], Venice and \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.provincia.treviso.it/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ETreviso\u003C/a\u003E [\u003Ca href=\u0022http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en\u0026sl=it\u0026u=http://www.provincia.treviso.it/\u0026prev=/search%3Fq%3DTreviso%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEN\u003C/a\u003E], between 1475 and 1480, but a document published by Dr Bampo proves that he was born in Venice, and it is to be gathered from his will that 1480 was probably the year of his birth. Overshadowed by the genius of his three great contemporaries, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=125\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ETitian\u003C/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=205\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EGiorgione\u003C/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/palma_vecchio.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EPalma\u003C/a\u003E, he had been comparatively neglected by art historians until \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.bartleby.com/65/be/Berenson.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMr Bernard Berenson\u003C/a\u003E devoted to him an essay in constructive art criticism, which not only restores to him his rightful position among the great masters of the Renaissance, but also throws clear light upon the vexed question of his artistic descent. Earlier authorities have made Lotto a pupil of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=290\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EGiovanni Bellini\u003C/a\u003E (\u003Ca href=\u0022http://41.1911encyclopedia.org/M/MO/MORELLI_GIOVANNI.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMorelli\u003C/a\u003E), of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/previtali_andrea.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EPrevitali\u003C/a\u003E (Crowe and \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/biog/Caval_G.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECavalcaselle\u003C/a\u003E), of \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=186\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ELeonardo da Vinci\u003C/a\u003E (Lomazzo), whilst others discovered in his work the influences of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/conegliano_giambattista_cima_da.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECima\u003C/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=616\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECarpaccio\u003C/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=122\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ED\u0026uuml;rer\u003C/a\u003E, Palma and \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/francia_francesco.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EFrancia\u003C/a\u003E. Mr Berenson has, however, proved that he was the pupil of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/vivarini_alvise.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EAlvise Vivarini\u003C/a\u003E, whose religious severity and asceticism remained paramount in his work, even late in his life, when he was attracted by the rich glow of Giorgione\u0027s and Titian\u0027s color. What distinguishes Lotto from his more famous contemporaries is his psychological insight into character and his personal vision\u0027s unconventionality, which is sufficient to account for the comparative neglect suffered by him when his art is placed beside the more typical art of Titian and Giorgione, the supreme expression of the character of the period.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThat Lotto, who was one of the most productive painters of his time, could work for thirty years without succumbing to the mighty influence of Titian\u0027s sumptuous color, is explained by the fact that during these years he was away from Venice, as is abundantly proved by documents and by the evidence of signed and dated works. The first of these documents, dated 1503, proves him to have lived at Treviso at this period. His earliest authentic pictures, \u003Ca href=\u0022http://79.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CO/CONWAY_SIR_WILLIAM_MARTIN.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ESir Martin Conway\u0027s\u003C/a\u003E \u003Cu\u003EDana\u003C/u\u003E (about 1498) and the \u003Cu\u003ESt Jerome\u003C/u\u003E of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ELouvre\u003C/a\u003E (a similar subject is at the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://museoprado.mcu.es/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMadrid Gallery\u003C/a\u003E ascribed to Titian), as indeed all the works executed before 1509, have unmistakable Vivarinesque traits in the treatment of the drapery and landscape, and cool grey tonality. To this group belong the Madonnas at \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.victorianlondon.org/buildings/bridgewaterhouse.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EBridgewater House\u003C/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edefault.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EVilla Borghese\u003C/a\u003E, Naples, and Sta Cristina near Treviso, the Recanati altarpiece, the \u003Cu\u003EAnnunciation of the Virgin\u003C/u\u003E at \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.asolo.it/turismo/asolo-uk.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EAsolo\u003C/a\u003E, and the portrait of a young man at \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.hamptoncourt.org.uk/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EHampton Court\u003C/a\u003E. We find him at Rome between 1508 and 1512, at the time \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=124\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ERaphael\u003C/a\u003E was painting in the Stanza della Signatura. A document in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://papal-library.saint-mike.org/ClementXII/Biography.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECorsini library\u003C/a\u003E mentions that Lotto received 100 ducats as an advance payment for fresco-work in the upper floor of the Vatican, but there is no evidence that this work was ever executed. In the next dated works, the \u003Cu\u003EEntombment\u003C/u\u003E at Jesi (1512), and the \u003Cu\u003ETransfiguration\u003C/u\u003E, \u003Cu\u003ESt James\u003C/u\u003E, and \u003Cu\u003ESt Vincent\u003C/u\u003E at Recanati, Lotto has abandoned the dryness and cool color of his earlier style, and adopted a fluid method and a blonde, joyful coloring. In 1513 we find him at Bergamo, where he had entered into a contract to paint for 500 gold ducats an altarpiece for S. Stefano. The picture was only completed in 1516, and is now at S. Bartolommeo. From the next years, spent mostly at Bergamo, with intervals in Venice and Jesi in the Marches, date the Dresden \u003Cu\u003EMadonna\u003C/u\u003E, \u003Cu\u003EChrist taking leave of his Mother\u003C/u\u003E at the Berlin Gallery, the \u003Cu\u003EBride and Bridegroom\u003C/u\u003E at Madrid, the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ENational Gallery\u003C/a\u003E \u003Cu\u003EFamily Group\u003C/u\u003E and portrait of the Protonothary Giuliano, several portraits in Berlin, Milan and Vienna, numerous altarpieces in and near Bergamo, the strangely misnamed \u003Cu\u003ETriumph of Chastity\u003C/u\u003E at the Rospigliosi Palace in Rome, and the portrait of Andrea Odoni at Hampton Court. In 1526 or 1527 Lotto returned to Venice, where Titian ruled supreme in the world of art; and it was only natural that the example of the great master should have fired him to emulation, though his experiments in this direction were confined to an attempt at rivalling the masters rich and ruddy color-schemes. Even in the Carmine altarpiece, the \u003Cu\u003ESt Nicholas of Ban\u003C/u\u003E, which is his nearest approach to Titian, he retained his individualized, as opposed to Titian\u0027s generalized, expression of emotion. But it was only a passing phase, and he soon returned to the cooler schemes of his earlier work. Among his chief pictures executed in Venice between 1529 and 1540 are the \u003Cu\u003EChrist and the Adulteress\u003C/u\u003E, now at the Louvre, the \u003Cu\u003EVisitation\u003C/u\u003E at the Jesi Library, the \u003Cu\u003ECrucifixion\u003C/u\u003E at Monte S. Giusto, the \u003Cu\u003EMadonna\u003C/u\u003E at the Uffizi, the \u003Cu\u003EMadonna and Saints\u003C/u\u003E at \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.cingoli.sinp.net/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECingoli\u003C/a\u003E [\u003Ca href=\u0022http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en\u0026sl=it\u0026u=http://www.cingoli.sinp.net/\u0026prev=/search%3Fq%3DCingoli%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEN\u003C/a\u003E], and some portraits at the Berlin and Vienna museums, the Villa Borghese and Doria Palace in Rome, and at Dorchester House. He is again to be found at Treviso from 1542-1545, at \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.provincia.ancona.it/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EAncona\u003C/a\u003E [\u003Ca href=\u0022http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en\u0026sl=it\u0026u=http://www.provincia.ancona.it/\u0026prev=/search%3Fq%3DAncona%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DG\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EEN\u003C/a\u003E] in 1550, the year in which he entirely lost his voice; and in 1552 he devoted his person and all his property to the \u003Cu\u003EHoly Virgin\u003C/u\u003E of Loreto and took up his abode with the monks of that shrine. He died in 1556. A codex in his own handwriting, discovered in the archives of Loreto, not only includes a complete statement of his accounts, from about 1539 to his death, but has a most interesting entry from which we gather that in 1540 Lotto completed the portraits of \u003Ca href=\u0022http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09438b.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EMartin Luther\u003C/a\u003E and his wife. These portraits could not have been painted from life; they were presumably executed from some contemporary engraving.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ESee \u003Cu\u003ELorenzo Lotto\u003C/u\u003E, by Bernard Berenson (London, 1901).\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cu\u003ESource:\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/strong\u003E Entry on the artist in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://35.1911encyclopedia.org/L/LO/LOTTO_LORENZO.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E1911 Edition Encyclopedia\u003C/a\u003E.\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":true,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":false,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":true,"HasSignatures":true,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":71}