The Stoning of Saint Stephen

The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1516
oil on panel
Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo

Soon after he arrived in Bergamo, Lotto was awarded the contract to paint the altarpiece for the high altar of the church of Saints Stephen and Dominic. In the eighteenth century, the altarpiece was placed in a new frame that had no room for these three panels, which once adorned its predella, or base. The panel of Mary and the apostles laying the crucified Christ in the tomb is flanked by scenes from the lives of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and Dominic, the thirteenth-century founder of the Dominican order, who miraculously restored to life the nephew of a prominent cardinal.