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Visual Arts

Review: Lorenzo Lotto at The National Gallery ★★★★★

05 Nov 18 – 10 Feb 19, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

The National Gallery plays host to the first ever exhibition of Lorenzo Lotto, whose portraits are so alive they stare back

5 CW readers are interested
Detail: Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia, c.1530-3. © The National Gallery, London
Detail: Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia, c.1530-3. © The National Gallery, London
Review: Lorenzo Lotto at The National Gallery 3 Review: Lorenzo Lotto at The National Gallery Anna Livesey
The National Gallery is having a Renaissance bonanza. In addition to the masterpieces by da Vinci, Botticelli and Raphael in the permanent collection and the Bellini/Mantegna retrospective, there is now a display of the work of Lorenzo Lotto. For the first ever exhibition of Lotto’s work the Gallery has assembled a collection of portraits, charting the fluctuating fortunes of a career which spanned 50 years, in an attempt to salvage the reputation of a forgotten Renaissance maestro.


Lotto experienced brief success as a portraitist, catering to the middling elites of Venice and Lombardy in the early sixteenth century, but he crashed out of fashion towards the end of his life, renouncing his artistic vocation for a new life as a monk. He has remained relatively obscure ever since.


It's hard to see why: the sumptuous costumes flaunted in Lotto’s canvases smack of a Cinquecento Vogue fashion shoot. Clothes and jewellery are recreated in minute detail and in a ravishing array of bright colours, as eye-catching as the sitters who wear them. The exhibition includes a collection of domestic objects alongside the portraits, which attempt to recreate the importance of materials in the Renaissance world. But these inclusions feel unnecessary, since Lotto’s eye-candy draws the viewer into this world more than any dog-eared Bible or worn carpet ever could.



Lorenzo Lotto Portraits, National Gallery

Detail: Lorenzo Lotto, Messer Marsilio Cassotti and his wife Faustina, 1523. © Museo Nacional del Prado


More remarkable still are the people. By contrast to the jaded smiles and sideward glances of Holbein, Raphael or Dürer, it’s hard to find a character here who isn’t staring straight out at the viewer. 500 years have failed to extinguish the captivating fire behind the eyes of these silent sitters, Lotto capturing a kaleidoscope of personalities with extraordinary precision. One of the great pleasures of this exhibition is meeting each of their gazes in turn, wondering what thoughts have caused such intense stares, cocky smiles and anxious frowns.



Andrea Odoni, © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018

Detail: Lorenzo Lotto, Andrea Odoni, 1527. © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018


Lotto dazzles when drawing out the material wealth and inner emotions of his clients. At the centre of the exhibition lies Portrait of a Woman Inspired by Lucrezia, perhaps Lotto’s masterpiece, painted in Venice at the height of his career. A striking young woman, chicly dressed in striped green and orange, has her eyes fixed firmly (almost sassily) on the viewer, daring them to contradict her. Such a portrait speaks to the era of #MeToo far more than the Renaissance’s idealised portrayals of feminine meekness. The viewer seems to have stumbled into a family argument, a daughter reacting to being told she can’t have what she wants. Lotto's work shows that some things never change. This is about as intimate an encounter with the sixteenth century you're ever likely to get.


by Alex Colville

What Review: Lorenzo Lotto at The National Gallery
Where National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN | MAP
Nearest tube Charing Cross (underground)
When 05 Nov 18 – 10 Feb 19, 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Price £Free
Website Click here for more information



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