Lorenzo Lotto (1480–1556) Bernardo de’ Rossi and the Virgin and Child, Capodimonte Museum, Naples

Lorenzo Lotto “Portrait of Bernardo de’ Rossi”

Bernardo de' Rossi Painting – Oil on canvas (55 x 43.5 cm) 1505

Bernardo de' Rossi was Bishop of Treviso and was Lorenzo Lotto’s first official patron.

Bernardo de’ Rossi’s serious face is strikingly realistic: the bishop looks us straight in the eye.

The skin of the face, like the hand clutching a scroll of parchment, is superbly rendered and lends depth and life to this portrait, painted against a plain green background that harmonises with the eyes.

Lorenzo Lotto “Virgin and Child with Saint Peter Martyr”

Painting – Oil on canvas (55 x 87 cm) 1503

This painting by Lorenzo Lotto depicts Saint Peter Martyr, also known as Peter the New or Saint Peter of Verona.

Peter Martyr was a Dominican; he had fiercely combated Catharism whilst serving as Inquisitor in Milan and Florence.

Lorenzo Lotto, Madonna and Child with Saint Peter the Martyr, Capodimonte Museum, Naples, Italy

The Virgin and Child with Saint Peter the Martyr In 1252, he was 31 years old when he was murdered by a heretic who split his skull and pierced his chest, on the road between Como and Milan.

He was beatified a year later; his murderer, who had become a Dominican after repenting, died forty years later and was in turn beatified.

The scene depicted by Lorenzo Lotto shows Saint Peter Martyr before the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus on her lap, as he blesses the young Saint John the Baptist, who looks at him fervently with his hands clasped over his chest.

Saint Peter the Martyr is wearing his Dominican habit and holds the palm of martyrdom close to his heart, with a cleaver piercing his skull and a dagger lodged in his chest to recall the circumstances of his death.

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