The ''Martinengo Altarpiece'' is a painting by the Italian

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

painter

Lorenzo Lotto Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480 – 1556/57) was an Italian Painting, painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school (art), Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other north Italian cities. He pain ...

, finished in 1516. It is housed in the church of Santi Bartolomeo e Stefano in

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

in northern Italy.

History

On 15 May 1516, Lotto was in Bergamo to sign a contract for a large altarpiece for the high altar of the church of San Bartolomeo, funded by Alessandro Martinengo Colleoni, who had chosen the church as the family's new burial place (the outstanding

Colleoni Chapel The Cappella Colleoni (Italian: "Colleoni Chapel") is a chapel and mausoleum attached to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in the northern Italian city of Bergamo. Dedicated to the saints Bartholomew, Mark and John the Baptist, it was built ...

is located nearby). It was finished three years later, as testified by the signature, and was paid 500

ducats The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

. The painting, the largest ever painted by Lotto, was once accompanied by a series of minor panels, which were dispersed in the following centuries and have been only partially identified - one is '' The Entombment of Christ'' (now in Bergamo).

Description

The subject of the painting is a

Holy Conversation In art, a (; plural: ''sacre conversazioni''), meaning holy (or sacred) conversation, is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child (the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus) amidst a group of saint ...

, with the Virgin and the Child sitting on a throne surrounded by saints. The scene is set in a majestic architecture perhaps inspired by

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...

style. In the center, where the dome should be, is the

tholobate In architecture, a tholobate (from el, θολοβάτης, tholobates, dome pedestal) or drum is the upright part of a building on which a dome is raised. It is generally in the shape of a cylinder or a polygonal prism. In the earlier Byzanti ...

, whose pendentives decorated with Mark and John the Evangelists. Two angels are watching from a balustrade, perhaps inspired by Mantegna's

Camera degli Sposi The Camera degli Sposi ("bridal chamber"), sometimes known as the Camera picta ("painted chamber"), is a room frescoed with illusionistic paintings by Andrea Mantegna in the Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy.. During the fifteenth century when the Came ...

. Two other angels fly over Mary holding her crown. The interpretation of the numerous symbols of the picture is disputed. Some of the objects could be taken from Francesco Colonna's ''

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' (; ), called in English ''Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream'' or ''The Dream of Poliphilus'', is a book said to be by Francesco Colonna. It is a famous example of an incunable (a work of early printing). The wor ...

'', alluding to the rule of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

in Bergamo, of which Martinengo was a supporter. The inscription in the upper part, saying ''Divina Suave'', would be a reference to Venice. In the lower part, the Virgin sits on a throne having a zoomorphic base, whose lion paws are a reference to

St. Mark's Lion The Lion of Saint Mark, representing Mark the Evangelist, pictured in the form of a winged lion, is an aspect of the Tetramorph. On the pinnacle of St Mark's Cathedral he is depicted as holding a Bible, and surmounting a golden lion which is t ...

, symbol of Venice. The lion is also peeping from behind the throne, on the left. There is a total of ten saints, including St. Alexander, eponymous of the donor, portrayed with a scintillating armor and, perhaps, with the face of Martinengo himself. His wife Barbara is also portrayed next to him, as the saint with the same name. The two child angels in the low foreground are a typical element in Lotto's works. The work is signed and dated "Laurentius / Lotus / M.D.XVI".

Secondary panels

The following panels, located in other places, are usually associated with the work: *''Angel with Sceptre and a Globe'' (

cymatium Cymatium, the uppermost molding at the top of the cornice in the classical order, is made of the s-shaped cyma molding (either ''cyma recta'' or ''cyma reversa''), combining a concave cavetto with a convex ovolo. It is characteristic of Ionic colu ...

), 46x155 cm,

Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest The Museum of Fine Arts ( hu, Szépművészeti Múzeum �seːpmyveːsɛti ˈmuːzɛum is a museum in Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary, facing the Palace of Art. It was built by the plans of Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog in an eclecti ...

*''Martyrdom of St. Stephen'' (predella), 51x97 cm,

Accademia Carrara The Accademia Carrara, (), officially Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo, is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, in Lombardy in northern Italy. The art gallery was established in about 1780 by , a Bergamasco collect ...

, Bergamo *''Deposition of Christ'' (predella), 51x97 cm, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo *''Miracle of St. Dominic'' (predella), 51x97 cm, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo *''Martyrdom of St. Alexander'' (tondo, canvas), 16.8 cm diameter,

North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that e ...

, Raleigh *''Pietà'' (tondo, tela), 16.8 cm diameter, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh *''St. Peter Martyr'' (from the pillars, canvas), 24x53 cm, Fondazione Longhi, Florence *''Dominican Saint'' (from the pillars, tela), 24x53 cm, Fondazione Longhi, Florence

Sources

* {{Lorenzo Lotto 1516 paintings Paintings of the Madonna and Child by Lorenzo Lotto Altarpieces Angels in art Lions in art category:Paintings of Saint Barbara