Lorenzo Lotto

Venetian, c. 1480 - 1556/1557

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Italian painter

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A young woman and an older man kneel to either side of a nude baby outside of a barn-like structure in this vertical painting. The people and three winged angels overhead all have pale skin except the older man, who has a more tan complexion. To our right, the woman kneels with her hands crossed over her chest, facing our left in profile. She looks down with dark eyes, and has a long, straight nose, flushed cheeks, and pink lips. Her wavy, chestnut-brown hair is mostly covered by a voluminous white veil that drapes across her shoulders. She wears an azure-blue cloak over a rose-pink, long-sleeved dress, which puddles under her knees. To our left, the man kneels with his hands held up near his face in prayer. He has dark eyes and a short, stubby nose. He is balding with a fringe of curly gray hair, and he has a full, graying beard. He wears a coral-red robe wrapped in a mustard-yellow cloak. The edges of white cuffs are visible at his wrists. One sandaled foot peeks out from under his robe as he kneels on the other knee. A walking stick lies across one arm, braced in his lap. Glimmering gold rings create halos around the man and woman's heads. Between them and on a white cloth in a woven basket, the baby has a pudgy face and body as he lifts his hands toward the woman. One foot is also raised, chubby knee bent. The infant has dark eyes and blond curly hair. Clusters of three lines emanate from the top of his head and to the sides over each ear. A wooden container and a white sack sit on the dirt ground, next to the basket. Beyond the group is a wooden structure with a thatched, overhanging roof. Two white birds sit along a branch tucked in the supports holding up the roof, and a ladder leans against the side of the barn. A crucifux hangs from a deeply shadowed wall behind the man, along the left edge of the painting. Three, winged, childlike angels gather around a piece of sheet music at the top center of the painting. They all have dark blond hair but different colored wings, in coral pink, forest green, or golden yellow. Below, trees and grassy hills lead back to hazy blue mountains along the horizon in the deep distance. A person and white sheep dot the hillside near the structure. The sky above deepens from ice blue at the horizon to aquamarine blue across the top edge. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had inscribed a plank of wood near the lower right corner: “L. Lotus 1523.”
Lorenzo Lotto, The Nativity, 1523, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.288

The Nativity

Lorenzo Lotto · 1523 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.288

Shown from the waist up and nearly filling the picture, a young woman with pale skin, dressed in a jewel-toned gown and cape, looks out at us in this vertical painting. Her shoulders are angled slightly to our right, and she tilts her head in that direction. Her pale cheeks are tinged with pink, and she gazes at us from the corners of large brown eyes under thin brows. A slender gold crown is looped with gleaming strands of pearls hung with red and dark green gems. It rests on her upswept auburn-brown hair, and a thin halo frames her head. She wears a bright, flame-red gown with voluminous sleeves and a pleated bodice. Sheer, white fabric covers her chest to create a V that reaches the squared neckline. An emerald-green cloak is loosely draped across the back of her shoulders and over the top of a spiked, wooden wheel on which she rests her hands. She wears a gold ring on the third finger of her left hand and holds a yellow palm frond in the other. Behind her, a burgundy-red cloth patterned with stylized, brighter red plants and flowers hangs in bunches and folds.
Lorenzo Lotto, Saint Catherine, 1522, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.117

Saint Catherine

Lorenzo Lotto · 1522 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.117

Lorenzo Lotto, The Martyrdom of Saint Alexander of Bergamo, c. 1524, pen and brown ink over graphite; some corrections on horse's head with white gouache; squared with graphite; on two sheets joined vertically, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1971.46.2

The Martyrdom of Saint Alexander of Bergamo

Lorenzo Lotto · c. 1524 · pen and brown ink over graphite; some corrections on horse's head with white gouache; squared with graphite; on two sheets joined vertically ·  Accession ID  1971.46.2

Set on a strip of land under a cloud-filled sky and in front of a stormy sea, a nude, light-skinned satyr reclines to our right as a nude, pale-skinned, blond child crouches over some objects on the dirt ground to our left in this vertical landscape painting. The satyr has with a man’s body and shaggy, goat’s legs. He leans over and peers into a golden urn, which has a round bottom and tall, flaring sides about the height of his torso. One hand holds the single handle and the other wraps around the body of the urn. The tips of the satyr’s ears are elongated and pointed, and the corner of his mouth curves up into an exaggerated smile in his brown beard. Red liquid pours from an object, perhaps an overturned urn, near the satyr’s outstretched leg and white liquid pours from another urn between us and the satyr. Next to the satyr, at the center of the painting, a thick, upright tree trunk is broken off abruptly but one shoot grows tall with emerald-green leaves. A translucent, shield-shaped object decorated with an open-mouthed, human face hangs from a pink ribbon around the broken trunk near the branch. A second shield outlined in red with a rearing, white lion against a royal-blue field leans against the foot of the tree to our left. Nearby, the pale, naked child holds a pair of sticks, possibly a compass, and reaches for other objects on the ground near the shield, including a white disk, a pair of small, red-covered books, a square and possibly a plumb line, a flute, pan pipes, and a scroll of paper. The ground and landscape around each person are distinctly different. To our left, the dirt ground under the child is littered with small rocks. Beyond a row of larger boulders, a sweeping field of lemon-lime green sweeps up into a bank of clouds. A small nude person with dark forms, perhaps representing wings, on their shoulders, arms hips, and ankles ascends a path up toward the clouds. To our right, the satyr reclines on green grass in front of a screen of three lush trees. Beyond, across the entire landscape, a choppy sea extends into the far distance beneath the steel-gray clouds above. A masted ship is swallowed by waves behind the satyr, to our right.
Lorenzo Lotto, Allegory of Virtue and Vice, 1505, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.156

Allegory of Virtue and Vice

Lorenzo Lotto · 1505 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.156

A baby-like winged putto flies above and drops a stream of white flowers onto a woman who sits leaning against a cut tree trunk this vertical landscape painting. There are also two satyrs, who have the upper bodies and heads of people and the legs of goats. The woman and child have pale skin, and the satyrs have tan-colored skin. The central woman’s body is angled to our right, and her legs stretch in front of her on the grassy ground. She props her blond head against the hand supported by the tree trunk and looks to our right in profile. She has a round face, small nose, pursed lips, and a double chin. She wears a flowing white gown, and a flax-yellow cloak wraps around her shoulders and covers her lap. Above the woman, the putto has brown hair and wings, and wears a brown tunic that only covers the chest. The thin cloud on which the putto kneels is strewn with the same flowers being dropped down onto the woman. More flowers are gathered in the cloth of the putto's tunic, used like a basket. Lit from below, the putto looks down at the woman. The blond, female satyr looks and smiles at the woman from behind a spindly tree trunk to our left. More trees create groves on both sides of the scene. A male satyr with a dark goatee and hair leans against a low rock to face our right in profile in the bottom right corner of the composition. He holds up and looks at a small white urn. A stream runs from the rocky area in the lower right back to our left, and then zigzags through low moss-green and harvest-yellow hills. A band of smoky-gray mountains encloses the scene in the deep distance along the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. The sky is streaked with peach and pale yellow immediately over the mountains and deepens to ultramarine blue along the top edge.
Lorenzo Lotto, Allegory of Chastity, c. 1505, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.147

Allegory of Chastity

Lorenzo Lotto · c. 1505 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.147