Lorenzo Lotto (Venice, c. 1480 – Loreto in the province of Ancona, 1556) was an original painter who used vivid colours and great imagination. He trained in Venice and Treviso (1503-06) in the style of Giovanni Bellini, but was also influenced by Antonello da Messina and Albrecht Dürer (Madonna and Child with Saint, 1503, Capodimonte in Naples; Our Lady of the Assumption in the parish church of Asolo, 1506).

In 1508 he worked in the Marche area and, the following year, in Rome on the decoration of the Vatican apartments.
He then returned to the Marche Region, painting a Deposition in Jesi (1512) and a Transfiguration (1513), now in the Pinacoteca di Recanati: these paintings show his skill in using Raphael-like structures.
Then, in 1513 Lotto moved to Bergamo, which proved to be a more suitable environment for his increasingly anti-academic and anti-classic language. There he became popular for his altarpieces and frescoes, working on many of the most churches in the city and province of Bergamo.
He also painted a lot of portraits during this period, with excellent penetration of the psychology of his subjects (Portrait of a Young Man, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice).
Lotto then returned to the Marche Region and Venice, where he painted another series of masterpieces, such as his Annunciation (Pinacoteca di Recanati), Madonna of the Rosary with Saints (1539, San Domenico a Cingoli) and St. Antony’s Alms-Giving 1542, Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice), one of his last Venetian commissions.

1500 - - rev. 0.1.5