Lorenzo Lotto

Born in Venice, Lotto is often affiliated to the Venetian school of painting. He painted mainly altarpieces, religious subjects and portraits; active in Venice, Treviso, Recanati, Rome, Bergamo and throughout The Marches (Ancona, Macerata, Jesi) of Italy. His style fits within the High Renaissance, but distinctly in a transitional stage to 16th Century Florentine and Roman Mannerism. This was seen in his often nervous or eccentric posing and distortions.

While traditionally included in the Venetian School, his independent career actually places him outside the Venetian art scene at the time. He was certainly not as highly regarded in Venice as in the other towns he worked in. Lotto was stylistic an individual; what can even be called an idiosyncratic style.

Not much is known of his training, but Lotto’s works show an influence from the Venetians, Giovanni Bellini (1430 – 1516) and Giorgione (1477 – 1510). His later work began to show an influence from the influential painter of Parma, Correggio (1489 – 1534). His first works appeared in Venice, then in Treviso, painting several praised altarpieces for churches there. Around 1506, he was in Recanati where he painted his well known piece, Portrait of a Young Man against a White Curtain. After some time in The Marches, he was then invited to Rome, where he took on the influence of Raphael (1483 – 1520). He then traveled to Bergamo, which proved to be his best and most productive artistic period. He would later return to Venice, while traveling from town to town in search of commissions.

There are three pieces from Lotto now in the Uffizi Gallery, his Holy Family with Saints Jerome, Ann and Joachin, also his Susanna and the Elders, as well as, Portrait of a Youth. For much of history, Lotto’s art was largely forgotten; this could be attributed to the fact that his oeuvre now remains in lesser known churches or in provincial museums. Even the top galleries of the world possess each only a few of his paintings. Thanks to the work of the art historian Bernard Berenson, he was rediscovered and acclaimed as a master at the end of the 19th century.

(Some of this text was taken from the www.wikipedia.org entry on Lorenzo Lotto, made available through the GNU Free Documentation License.)