Lorenzo Lotto’s Portraits

Lotto is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic of early sixteenth-century Renaissance artists, and the painter of outstandingly novel and groundbreaking portraits. Although Lorenzo Lotto was born in Venice around 1480, most of his life was spent working in other parts of northern Italy and for a variety of patrons. It is interesting to ponder what effect these experiences may have had on his work as an artist and indeed the important place which portraiture seems to have had in his career. From his twenties until the last decade of his life Lotto painted portraits of unusual immediacy and intensity which have few parallels. This day will offer an opportunity to study Lotto’s activity in northern Italy and the Marches, not only his work as a portraitist of some of the most innovative portraits at the time but also his striking altarpieces, glowing with colour, in which his enthusiasm for portraiture invigorates his religious figures and donors. The National Gallery exhibition of his portraits is taking place this autumn and focuses for the first time on the work of Lotto as a portraitist including new information which has emerged from the study of Lotto’s account books and diary.

 Programme for the day

Who was Lorenzo Lotto? An introduction to his life and times.

Lorenzo Lotto’s Portraiture I.

Lorenzo Lotto’s Portraiture II.

Lorenzo Lotto’s contribution to Portraiture in the early sixteenth-century Renaissance.

(Tea and coffee will be served in the morning and afternoon breaks)