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Biography of Lorenzo Lotto

Italian Renaissance painter and draftsman
born circa 1480 - died 1556
Also known as: Laurent Lotto, Laurentius Lotus, Lorenzo Lotti.

Collaborated with: Girolamo da Santacroce (c.1480-1556) in 1542.
Employer of: Raffaello da Montelupo (1504-1566) from 1523 to 1527

LOTTO, LORENZO (c. 1480-1556), Italian painter, is variously stated to have been born at Bergamo [EN], Venice and Treviso [EN], between 1475 and 1480, but a document published by Dr Bampo proves that Lorenzo Lotto 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, Titian, Giorgione and Palma, Lorenzo Lotto artist had been comparatively neglected by art historians until Mr Bernard Berenson 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 Lorenzo Lotto painter a pupil of Giovanni Bellini (Morelli), of Previtali (Crowe and Cavalcaselle), of Leonardo da Vinci (Lomazzo), whilst others discovered in Lorenzo Lotto paintings the influences of Cima, Carpaccio, Dürer, Palma and Francia. Mr Berenson has, however, proved that Lorenzo Lotto was the pupil of Alvise Vivarini, whose religious severity and asceticism remained paramount in Lorenzo Lotto Italian paintings, even late in his life, when he was attracted by the rich glow of Giorgione's and Titian's color. What distinguishes Lotto from his more famous contemporaries is his psychological insight into character and his personal vision's unconventionality, which is sufficient to account for the comparative neglect suffered by him when his Italian paintings are placed beside the more typical art of Titian and Giorgione, the supreme expression of the character of the period.

That Lorenzo Lotto painter, who was one of the most productive artists of his time, could work for thirty years without succumbing to the mighty influence of Titian's sumptuous color, is explained by the fact that during these years Lorenzo Lotto was away from Venice, as is abundantly proved by documents and by the evidence of signed and dated Italian paintings. The first of these documents, dated 1503, proves Lorenzo Lotto artist to have lived at Treviso at this period. His earliest authentic Italian paintings, Sir Martin Conway's Dana (about 1498) and the St Jerome of the Louvre (a similar subject is at the Madrid Gallery ascribed to Titian), as indeed all the Lorenzo Lotto paintings 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 Bridgewater House, Villa Borghese, Naples, and Sta Cristina near Treviso, the Recanati altarpiece, the Annunciation of the Virgin at Asolo, and the portrait of a young man at Hampton Court. We find him at Rome between 1508 and 1512, at the time Raphael was painting in the Stanza della Signatura.

A document in the Corsini library mentions that Lorenzo Lotto Italian received 100 ducats as an advance payment for fresco-work in the upper floor of the Vatican, but there is no evidence that this Italian painting was ever executed. In the next dated Italian paintings, the Entombment at Jesi (1512), and the Transfiguration, St James, and St Vincent at Recanati, Lorenzo 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 Lorenzo Lotto had entered into a contract to paint for 500 gold ducats an altarpiece for S. Stefano. The Italian painting was only completed in 1516, and is now at S. Bartolommeo.

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 Lorenzo Lotto Italian completed the portraits of Martin Luther and his wife. These portraits could not have been painted from life; they were presumably executed from some contemporary engraving.