Lorenzo Lotto was a Renaissance painter known for his idiosyncratic and enigmatic works that often contain complex symbolic meanings that are challenging to decode. His paintings feature unusual details like animals, objects, and anachronisms that seem to carry deeper messages, but interpreting Lotto's specific intentions can be difficult and open to debate. Throughout his career, Lotto continued experimenting with unconventional elements in his religious and portrait works to create an atmosphere of mystery.

2. his paintings are often quirky and enigmatic and sometimes carry complex messages
the challenge to decode them though is precisely why they are so riveting …

3. The mysterious masterpieces of Lorenzo Lotto

5. Idiosyncratic Lorenzo Lotto can be counted as one of the most fascinating of all Renaissance painters
His paintings are puzzles, his life enigmatic, his reputation bizarrely neglected

7. a forbidding atmosphere
a chilly white light
a young man, pale-faced, slightly reptilian, bends over the books
in his study ...
rose petals,
a table that resembles a coffin ... allusions to the death of love ?
and
a lizard ... one cold-blooded creature looking at another ...
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Man with a Lizard
Portrait d'un homme avec un lézard
1530
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

10. a little naked room
a gentleman dressed in black
melancholy or mourning
a meditation on death
flower petals and a miniature skull
two close but separate rings might suggest the end of love
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Gentleman (Mercurio Bua)
Portrait d’homme (Mercurio Bua)
1535
Galleria Borghese, Rome

15. a mystery ...
an elegantly dressed man:
Is he rising to address someone or is he pointing to something outside
the frame?
a piece of paper:
a letter or a design for one important architectural projects?
clover, a symbol of abundance, good fortune, and happy marriage
and jasmine, associated with purity and love:
there may have been a companion portrait of the sitter’s bride, to whom
he acknowledges his devotion?
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Man, possibly Girolamo Rosati
Portrait d'un homme, peut-être Girolamo Rosati
1525
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

20. a gentleman wearing a rich, fur-lined black coat
and
a golden paw
and
a problem:
the symbolic meaning of the lion's paw,
the meaning of the painting;
an allusion to the subject's name,
a masonic significance
an attribute referring to the sitter's profession or social role,
a sculptor or goldsmith
... a conclusive interpretation of this painting is not possible
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Lion Paw
Portrait d’homme à la patte de lion
1527
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

25. a masterpiece
the Venetian collector Andrea Odoni holding an ancient statue ...
a magnificent image of obsession, wealth, pride
but also
a image gently troubling:
a stauette of Diana of Ephesus
and
a small crucifix …
What might we conclude from this curious detail? Perhaps that both
sitter and artist are subtly commenting on the lure of pagan art in a
Christian age?
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of Andrea Odoni
Portrait d’Andrea Odoni
1527
Royal Collection, Hampton Court

30. a Goldsmith in Three Positions,
a new enigma ...
we should see
three views of Bartolomeo Carpan, a jeweller and friend of Lotto
or
a portrait of Bartolomeo Carpan and his two brothers Antonio and Vettore
or
the "tre visi" or "three faces" of the portrait are a pun on Carpan's
hometown, Treviso
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Goldsmith in Three Positions
Triple portrait d'un orfèvre
1530
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

34. one of the most refined and disturbing Lotto's works ...
a copy of Petrarch’s Il Canzoniere, a volume of verse that throbs with
the ache of unrequited passion
and
a penetrating oblique glance of someone seeking consolation
for heartache
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Young Man with a Book
Portrait de jeune homme au livre
1525-1526
Castello Sforzesco, Milan

38. a young man
a curtain of white brocade
and
an element of disquiet ...
a small burning lamp on a shelf
a symbol which could allude to the man's personality or deeds,
an allegory of the human life's shortness
an allusion to the passage in St. John: "lux in tenebris", 'And the light
shineth in darkness', John 1,5 ...
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Young Man with an Oil-lamp
Portrait de jeune homme à la lampe
1506-1508
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

42. the mystery of this weird composition …
a carpet-covered table
a squirrel lying between a rich husband and wife
and
a scroll inscribed Homo Numquam -‘Man Never’
but never what?
that he would never behave like a squirrel and abandon his partner ?
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Married Couple
Portrait d'un couple marié
1523-1524
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

46. this splendid portrait again allows one to play a guessing game of
references and meanings ...
a woman in an expensive velvet dress
an emphatic note on a table
and
a drawing of Lucretia, legendary heroine of ancient Rome who committed
suicide following the dishonour she felt after she was raped ...
Lucretia had been depicted as an exemplar of chastity and moral integrity
… but why include a drawing of her in this context?
It may be a reference to the sitter’s name
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia
Portrait d'une femme, inspiré de Lucrèce
1530-1532
National Gallery, London

51. Lotto, a master of the casual yet disturbing symbol ...
Lucina Brembati,
a large beaming woman in pearls, slightly coy, all her gold jewellery
on bosomy display
but ...
the complacency of the dame is undermined by a vicious weasel
draped around her arm that doesn’t look safely dead
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of Lucina Brembati
Portrait de Lucina Brembati
1521-1523
Fondazione Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

56. a Bergamo doctor, eyes red-rimmed, a greenish pallor (as if this physician
had failed to heal himself),
leaning even more awkwardly behind him is his son
there is ink spatter on the table
and
a beetle climbs ominously up the doctor’s spotless scarf
Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of Giovanni Agostino della Torre and his son Niccolò
Giovanni Agostino della Torre et son fils, Niccolò
1515-1516
The National Gallery, London

62. the enigmas of Lorenzo Lotto ...
an astonishing originality
a weird clear shield with a gorgon’s head that indicates petrification and death
a drunk Silenus staring in to his possibly empty vessel of wine
a boat sinking in a lake
a putto playing with the compass, the protractor for geometry
a shield with the arms of the Rossi family – a white lion rampant
Lorenzo Lotto
Allegory of Virtue and Vice
Allégorie de la Vertu et du Vice
1505
National Gallery of Art, Washington

69. an odd and unusual Annunciation scene ...
Gabriel runs in from the door bearing a huge lily and drops suddenly
to one knee ...
Mary turns toward us and opens her hands in wonder ...
and
a cat scurries away in terror, casting a shadow on the floor
Lorenzo Lotto
Annunciation
Annonciation
1534-1535
Pinacoteca Civica, Recanati

74. the anachronism surprises ...
a crucifix in a scene of Nativity
the idea of concentrating in one image the initial -the Nativity,
and final -the Crucifixion- moment of the Redemption seems to derive
from Venetian ideas …
Lorenzo Lotto
The Nativity
La nativité
1523
National Gallery of Art, Washington

78. all Lotto’s humour as well as his realism ...
St. Thomas, the doubting apostle, the last to arrive, running to ask
Our Lady to leave behind her belt ...
and puts on his glasses to see if the Virgin Mary has really ascended
into heaven
Lorenzo Lotto
Assumption of the Virgin
Assomption de la Vierge
1512
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

82. considered the last work of Lotto
a true masterpiece ...
and
a quirky detail is that the altar table is supported by human feet …
Why the strangeness? ...
The painter's "facetious sense of humour"?
Human feet to allude to Christ's resurrection from the tomb?
Perhaps.
One would think more readily that allusions, a code, symbols explain
the transposition.
Which ones? We won’t know anything about it.
Lorenzo Lotto
Presentation in the Temple
La Présentation au Temple
1552-1556
Museo pinacoteca della Santa Casa, Loreto

87. olga_oes
The mysterious masterpieces of Lorenzo Lotto
Les mystérieux chefs-d'œuvre de Lorenzo Lotto
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