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Lorenzo Lotto was born in Venice around 1480. Little is securely known about his childhood or earliest artistic training.
His early paintings reveal the influence of the Venetian tradition associated with Giovanni Bellini as well as other artists working in northern Italy. Lotto nevertheless developed an increasingly individual style.
By 1503 he was working in Treviso. His early career included both religious commissions and portraits, the two forms of painting that would remain central to his work throughout his life.
Lotto subsequently worked in the Marches. In 1508 he was called to Rome, where he participated in the decoration of the Vatican apartments during the pontificate of Julius II.
Much of Lotto's work in the Vatican was later destroyed or covered as Raphael and his workshop carried out the decoration now associated with the Raphael Rooms.
In 1513 Lotto received an important commission for an altarpiece for the church of Santi Bartolomeo e Stefano in Bergamo. He remained principally in Bergamo for more than a decade.
The Bergamo years were among the most productive periods of his career. Lotto painted major altarpieces, devotional works, portraits, and designs for an elaborate series of biblical intarsia panels for Santa Maria Maggiore.
He returned to Venice in the 1520s but continued to travel extensively. Unlike Titian, who enjoyed extraordinary success among elite Venetian and international patrons, Lotto often sought commissions in smaller cities and religious communities.
His paintings developed an increasingly distinctive emotional character. Religious figures may communicate through intense glances, unexpected gestures, or intimate physical relationships.
Lotto also became one of the most perceptive portraitists of the Italian Renaissance. Objects, clothing, expressions, and gestures often provide information about the identity, circumstances, or concerns of his sitters.
Beginning in 1538 Lotto kept a detailed account book. This surviving record provides valuable information concerning his commissions, travels, finances, materials, and relationships with patrons.
Religious belief became increasingly important in his later life. Lotto continued to produce paintings for churches and private devotion while moving between Venice, the Marches, and other locations.
During his final years he settled at Loreto, site of the important sanctuary of the Holy House. He became a lay member of the religious community there.
Lotto died at Loreto in 1556 or 1557. His highly individual approach to portraiture and religious imagery distinguishes him from the more dominant traditions of sixteenth-century Venetian painting.