Lorenzo Lotto Painter of Venice
Giorgio Vasari on Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto, painter of Venice, was
the companion and friend of Palma, and after imitating
the style of Bellini for some time, he adopted that of
Giorgione, as we see by several pictures and portraits in
the houses of Venetian noblemen. The house of Andrea
Odoni contains a fine portrait of him by Lorenzo, and in
the house of Tommaso da Empoli of Florence there is a
lovely Nativity of Christ, at night time, the glory of
the Christ lighting the picture. The Madonna is kneeling,
and there is a full length figure of M. Marco Loredano
adoring Christ. In the Carmelite friars he did a St
Nicholas in the air in his pontificals, with three
angels, and St Lucy and St John at his feet, with a
lovely landscape and many small figures and animals in
various places. On one side is St George in armor killing
the serpent, and hard by stands the damsel, with the city
and an arm of sea. In the chapel of St Anthony,
Archbishop of Florence, in S. Giovanni e Paolo, he did
the saint seated, with two priests and much people
beneath.
While still young, and at a time when
he partly followed Bellini and partly Giorgione, Lorenzo did
the high altar picture of S. Domenico at Ricanati in six
compartments. The middle contains the Virgin and Child
giving the habit to St Domenic by means of an angel, as
he kneels before her. Two infants play a lute and a rebec
respectively; another has Popes St Gregory and St Urban.
In the third is St Thomas Aquinas and another saint,
Bishop of Ricanati. Above these are three other pictures
in the middle, a dead Christ supported by an angel, His
mother kissing His arm, and the Magdalene. Over St
Gregory are St Mary Magdalene and St Vincent, and above
St Thomas Aquinas are St Sigismund and St Catherine of Siena.
The beautiful predella of small figures represents S.
Maria of Loreto carried by angels from Selavonia to its
present site, with St Domenic preaching on one side and
Pope Honorius confirming the Dominican rule on the other.
The same church contains a St Vincent, the monk, by the
same hand, in fresco. In the church of S. Maria di Castel
Nuovo is a transfiguration in oils, with three scenes of
small figures in the predella—Christ taking the
Apostles to Mount Tabor, Christ in the garden, and His
Ascension. Lorenzo then went to Ancona, where, in S.
Agostino, Mariano da Perugia had done the high altar
picture with a magnificent ornament, which, however, did
not afford much satisfaction. Here he did a panel for the
middle of the same church, of the Virgin and Child and
two angels in the air, with foreshortened figures
crowning the Virgin. When old and having all but lost his
voice, Lorenzo, after doing some unimportant works in
Ancona, went to the Madonna of Loreto, where he had
already painted a panel in oils, which is in a chapel on
the right on entering the church. Here he resolved to end
his days, living in the holy house and serving the
Virgin. So he began scenes about the choir above the
seats of the priests, with figures of a braccia and less.
One was a Nativity, the second the Adoration of the Magi;
then followed the Presentation to Simeon, and next the
Baptism by John; then the woman taken in adultery,
executed with grace. He did two other scenes full of
figures, one of David sacrificing, and the other St
Michael fighting Lucifer after driving him from heaven.
Not long after finishing these, Lorenzo died, a good
Christian, as he had lived. His last years were happy and
very peaceful, probably winning for him eternal life. He
might not have obtained this had he always been immersed
in the affairs of the world, which do not permit men to
raise their minds to the true benefits of the other life,
and to the highest happiness and joy.
The lives of the painters, sculptors
& architects, Volume 5 by Giorgio Vasari, Translated
by Allen Banks Hinds, J. M. Dent, 1900
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