An Acute Freshness of Observation

Lorenzo Lotto - Angel Annunciating - 1527 - Oil on wood, 75 x 55 cm (30 x 22 in.) - Church of Sts Vincent and Alexander, Ponteranica (click photo for larger image)According to the first art historian (and painter) Giorgio Vasari, Lorenzo Lotto ( 1480-c. 1556) trained with Giorgione and Titian, in the studio of Giovanni Bellini. But he worked in many places apart from Venice, had an idiosyncratic style, and stands somewhat apart from the central Venetian tradition. His rootless existence reflects his anxious, difficult temperament and his work is extremely uneven. It draws on a wide variety of sources, from Northern Europe as well as Italy, but at the same time shows acute freshness of observation. This work is an outstanding example of how original, poetic, and simultaneously strange his work could be.