Lorenzo Lotto Portraits at the National Gallery

The 16^th-century painter, Lorenzo Lotto, is one of the greatest portraitists of the Italian Renaissance. In his first UK exhibition, Lotto's portraits of middle-class Italian society and his religious paintings, for which he is best known, will grace the walls of London's National Gallery.

Although Lotto has lingered in Titian's masterful shadow over the centuries, his portraits achieve authenticity and psychological depth unrivalled by many of the Renaissance painters. Dozens of men and women came before his canvas at the height of his fame. Clerics, merchants, humanists and mothers have been forever immortalised in highly saturated colours, characteristic of the painter's style.

Exhibited alongside his paintings will be a diverse array of personal documents and belongings including carpets, sculptures, and jewellery, which hint at the status and interests of Lotto and his sitters. Thanks to the presence of his partially intact account books, the National Gallery will visually reconstruct the story of Lotto and his sitters. Their identities, the prices of his works, and the stylistic ways in which they were created will all be explored in depth.

This exhibition centres on Lotto’s portraiture. But with a wealth of other material on display, it will unveil as much about the paintings as the man himself. A long-over due retrospective is finally coming to London.