Eight small exhibitions
accompanying an art show in Macerata on Italian Renaissance
painter Lorenzo Lotto have drawn significant visitor numbers, in
some cases 70% or even double.
The main exhibition, titled "Lorenzo Lotto: The Call of the
Marche", is being hosted at Palazzo Buonaccorsi in Macerata.
Works from around the world were loaned out for inclusion in
the exhibition.
Some of these works were also spread around to eight other
"Lotto centres" in museums and churches that make up part of the
overall show in the Marche region.
Lotto died in the town of Loreto between 1556 and 1557, where
one of the eight additional centres is located.
The other centres are in Ancona, Urbino, Jesi, Recanati,
Monte San Giusto, Mogliano, and Cingoli.
In Monte San Giusto stands Palazzo Bonafede, one of the most
important examples of Renaissance architecture in the Marche,
together with Palazzo Ducale in Urbino.
In the town's St. Mary in Telusiano Church, an alterpiece by
Lotto titled "Crucifixion" (ca. 1529-1530), in its original
frame, is an impressive display of Renaissance woodworking.
In Mogliano, a small residential centre with an 18th-century
feel, the Museum of Sacred Art (MASM) contains Lotto's "Pala
dell'Assunta", also known as "Madonna in Glory with the Angels
and Saints John the Baptist, Anthony of Padua, Mary Magdalene
and Joseph".
In Cingoli, the so-called "balcony of the Marche" for its
splendid scenic views, there is the "Madonna of the Rosary",
temporarily on display in the Sala degli Stemmi at the Palazzo
Comunale.
Urbino needs no introduction, as a UNESCO World Heritage site
and the birthplace of Raphael, it is one of the most beautiful
Renaissance centres in Italy.
Among the many things to see, there is the Palazzo Ducale
with the National Gallery of the Marche, containing valuable
paintings by Piero della Francesca, Laurana, Raphael, and also
Lotto's 1549 work "Saint Rocco", which came from the Posatora
Church in Ancona and was purchased by the State in 2007.
There are five works by Lotto in Jesi, located in the
municipal art gallery in Palazzo Pianetti, where the town's
civic museum is housed.
The works were created between 1512 and 1539 for local
churches, and include an altar piece titled "The Deposition";
two wooden paintings, "The Angel of the Annunciation" and "The
Virgin of the Annunciation"; the "Madonna of the Roses", and the
famous "St. Lucy" altarpiece, one of Lotto's iconic
masterpieces.
In Recanati, the "Annunciation" altarpiece is also iconic,
located in the Villa Colloredo Mels civic museum along with a
group of extraordinary works by Lotto.
The young masterpiece known as the "Recanati Polyptych" of
1508 is there, along with the "Transfiguration of Christ", which
was influenced by Raphael but with an anti-classic style, and
the devotional wood painting "St. James the Greater".
Finally, the "Recanati Annuncation", depicting a room with
God the Father seeming to literally dive out of the heavens; the
angel, frightened by the enormity of what is happening; a cat
fleeing; and Mary, turned towards the viewer, who seems to want
to do the same, but knows there is no escape.
Ancona, capital of the Marche, is also a place of Lotto,
historically linked by relations with Venice and with the other
shore of the Adriatic.
In the municipal painting gallery, among the masterpieces by
Titian, Crivelli, Andrea Lilli, Sebastiano Del Piombo, and
Francesco Podesti, there is also the "Sacred Conversation" by
Lotto, also known as the "Altarpiece of the Halberd",
commissioned in 1538 for the Church of St. Augustine, with
extraordinary chiaroscuro effects.
A few hundred metres away, in the the church of San Francesco
alle Scale, there is the "Assumption" altarpiece, painted in
1550.
Finally, there is the Gothic-style Loggia dei Mercanti, where
in 1550 a lottery was held to sell Lotto's paintings.
In Loreto, since the Middle Ages the site of the Sanctuary of
the Holy House, there are seven works created for the ancient
Coro Chapel, also known as the German Chapel.
Some of the works there were completed in the last years of
Lotto's life, including the "Adoration of the Wise Men" and the
"Presentation of Jesus in the Temple", known as his final works.
Another large painting by Lotto, "St. Christopher with Child
and Saints Rocco and Sebastian" (ca. 1532-1533) can be seen in
the Basilica of the Holy House, where it was relocated in July
2018 after a conservation effort.
photo: Adoration of the Baby Jesus (1549-55)
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