Lotto, Lorenzo (lōrĕn`tsō lôt`tō), c.1480–1556, Venetian painter. His work reflects the influence of several great contemporaries from Bellini to Titian, but preserves throughout a fine sensibility and intimacy quite his own. Notable among his early works are St. Jerome (Louvre); the fresco Annunciation (Church of San Domenico, Recanati, Italy); and Madonna and Saints (cathedral, Asolo, Italy). Of a later period are Bridal Couple (Prado); Christ and the Adulteress (Louvre); and portraits in the galleries of London, Milan, Rome, and Vienna. After 1554 Lotto lived with the monks of the sanctuary at Loreto, where his Presentation in the Temple remains. He is represented in numerous American collections including the Philadelphia Museum; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Metropolitan Museum.

Bibliography

See study by B. Berenson (1955).

Lotto, Lorenzo

(born c. 1480, Venice [Italy]—died 1556, Loreto, Papal States) Italian painter. He worked in several cities other than Venice and developed an idiosyncratic style. His late Renaissance-style work exhibits a preference for opulent colours and a faculty for narrative painting. His nervous temperament is evident in such works as the Crucifixion in Monte San Giusto (1531), with its highly charged mysticism and crowded composition. Toward the end of his life (1554), he became a lay brother at the Santa Casa in Loreto to escape his critics and his debts. Though primarily a religious painter, he is best known today for his psychologically acute portraits.