Part 11 (1/2)

Lotto was now an accepted member of t.i.tian's set, and Aretino, in a letter dated 1548, writes that t.i.tian values his taste and judgment as that of no other; but Aretino, with his usual mixture of connoisseurs.h.i.+p and clever spite, goes on to insinuate accidentally, as it were, what he himself knew perfectly well, that Lotto was not considered on a par with the masters of the first rank. ”Envy is not in your breast,” he says, ”rather do you delight to see in other artists certain qualities which you do not find in your own brush, ... holding the second place in the art of painting is nothing compared to holding the first place in the duties of religion.”

An interesting codex or commentary tells us that Lotto never received high prices for his work, and we hear of him hawking pictures about in artistic circles, putting them up in raffles, and leaving a number with Jacopo Sansovino in the hope that he might hear of buyers. His work ended as it had begun, in the Marches. He undertook commissions at Recanati, Ancona, and Loreto, and in September 1554 he concluded a contract with the Holy House at Loreto, by which, in return for rooms and food, he made over himself and all his belongings to the care of the fraternity, ”being tired of wandering, and wis.h.i.+ng to end his days in that holy place.” He spent the last four years of his life at Loreto as a votary of the Virgin, painting a series of pictures which are distinguished by the same sort of apparent looseness and carelessness which we noticed in t.i.tian's late style; a technique which, as in t.i.tian's case, conceals a profound knowledge of plastic modelling.

Though Lotto executed an immense number of important and very beautiful sacred works, his portraits stand apart, and are so interesting to the modern mind that one is tempted to linger over them. Other painters give us finer pictures; in none do we feel so anxious to know who the sitters were and what was their story. Lotto has nothing of the Pagan quality which marks Giorgione and t.i.tian; he is a born psychologist, and as such he witnesses to an att.i.tude of mind in the Italy of his day which is of peculiar interest to our own. Lotto's bystanders, even in his sacred scenes, have nothing in common with t.i.tian's ”chorus”; they have the characterisation of distinct individuals, and when he is concerned with actual portraits he is intensely receptive and sensitive to the spirit of his sitters. He may be said to ”give them away,” and to take an almost unfair advantage of his perception. The sick man in the Doria Gallery looks like one stricken with a death sentence. He knows at least that it is touch and go, and the painter has symbolised the situation in the little winged genius balancing himself in a pair of scales. In the Borghese Gallery is the portrait of a young, magnificently dressed man, with a countenance marked by mental agitation, who presses one hand to his heart, while the other rests on a pile of rose-petals in which a tiny skull is half-hidden. The ”Old Man” in the Brera has the hard, narrow, but intensely sad face of one whose natural disposition has been embittered by the circ.u.mstances of his life, just as that of our Prothonotary speaks of a large and gentle nature, mellowed by natural affections and happy pursuits. We smile, as Lotto does, with kindly mischief at ”Marsilio and his Bride;” the broad, placid countenance of the man is so significantly contrasted with the clever mouth and eyes of the bride that it does not need the malicious glance of the cupid, who is fitting on the yoke, to ”dot the i's and cross the t's” of their future. Again, the portrait of Laura di Pola, in the Brera, introduces us to one of those women who are charming in every age, not actually beautiful, but harmonious, thoughtful, perfectly dressed, sensible, and self-possessed, and the ”Family Group” in our own gallery holds a history of a couple of antagonistic temperaments united by life in common and the clasping hands of children. Lotto does not keep the personal expression out of even such a canvas as his ”Triumph of Chast.i.ty” in the Rospigliosi Gallery. His delightful Venus, one of the loveliest nudes in painting, flies from the attacking termagant, whose virtue is proclaimed by the ermine on her breast, and sweeps her little cupid with her with a well-bred, surprised air, suggestive of the manners of mundane society.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Lorenzo Lotto._ PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA.

_Brera._ (_Photo, Anderson._)]

The painter who was thus able to unveil personality had evidently a mind that was aware of itself, that looked forward to a wider civilisation and a more earnest and intimate religion. His life seems to have been one of some sadness, and crowned with only moderate success. He speaks of himself as ”advanced in years, without loving care of any kind, and of a troubled mind.” His will shows that his worldly possessions were few and poor, and that he had no heir closer than a nephew; but he leaves some of his cartoons as a dowry to ”two girls of quiet nature, healthy in mind and body, and likely to make thrifty housekeepers,” on their marriage to ”two well-recommended young men,” about to become painters. His sensitive and introspective temperament led him to prefer the retirement and the quiet beauty of Loreto to the brilliant society of which he was made free in Venice. ”His spirit,” says Mr. Berenson, ”is more like our own than is perhaps that of any other Italian painter, and it has all the appeal and fascination of a kindred soul in another age.”

PRINc.i.p.aL WORKS

_Palma Vecchio._

Bergamo. Lochis: Madonna and Saints (L.).

Cambridge. Fitzwilliam Museum: Venus (L.).

Dresden. Madonna; SS. John, Catherine; Three Sisters; Holy Family; Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (L.).

London. Hampton Court: Santa Conversazione; Portrait of a Poet.

Milan. Brera: SS. Helen, Constantine, Roch, and Sebastian; Adoration of Magi (L.), finished by Cariani.

Naples. Santa Conversazione with Donors.

Paris. Adoration of Shepherds.

Rome. Villa Borghese: Lucrece (L.); Madonna with Saints and Donor.

Capitol: Christ and Woman taken in Adultery.

Palazzo Colonna: Madonna, S. Peter, and Donor.

Venice. Academy: St. Peter enthroned and six Saints; a.s.sumption.

Giovanelli: Sposalizio (L.).

S. Maria Formosa: Altarpiece.

Vienna. Santa Conversazione; Violante (L.); Five Portraits of Women.

_Lorenzo Lotto._

Ancona. a.s.sumption, 1550; Madonna with Saints (L.).

Asolo. Madonna in Glory, 1506.

Bergamo. Carrara: Marriage of S. Catherine; Predelle.

Lochis: Holy Family and S. Catherine; Predelle; Portrait.

S. Bartolommeo: Altarpiece, 1516.

S. Alessandro in Colonna: Pieta.

S. Bernardino: Altarpiece.

S. Spirito: Altarpiece.

Berlin. Christ taking leave of His Mother; Portraits.

Brescia. Nativity.

Cingoli. S. Domenico: Madonna and Saints and fifteen Small Scenes.

Florence. Uffizi: Holy Family.

London. Hampton Court: Portrait of Andrea Odoni, 1527; Portrait (E.); Portraits of Agostino and Niccolo della Torre, 1515; Family Group; Portrait of Prothonotary Giuliano.