Lorenzo Lotto ─ The Frescoes in the Oratorio Suardi at Trescore

In 1524 Lorenzo Lotto (Venice, 1480 - Loreto, 1556), one of the greatest Italian artists of the Renaissance, painted the walls of a small oratory. The building, owned by Battista Suardi, the nobleman who had commissioned the frescoes, was situated in the garden of his country house at Trescore Balneario, a few miles from Bergamo. The encounter between the Venetian painter and his refined patron, in a year marked by obscure signs in the heavens and heretical stirrings, produced one of the century's most unusual cycles of paintings, not only from the artistic viewpoint but also from that of the complexity of its doctrinal underpinnings.

The paintings of the great Venetian artist are thoroughly analyzed on the visual plane as well, by means of a lavish set of illustrations. A series of explanatory diagrams and close-up photographs, on a one-to-one scale, permit the reader to appreciate the high formal qualities of this cycle of paintings and to get to the heart of its beauty and meaning.

In this volume the author, Francesca Cortesi Bosco, traces the dense web of religious and cultural motivations that lie behind Lotto's masterpiece, presenting a fascinating picture of the artistic life of the time and opening up completely new prospects for its interpretation.

In 1524 Lorenzo Lotto (Venice, 1480 - Loreto, 1556), one of the greatest Italian artists of the Renaissance, painted the walls of a small oratory. The building, owned by Battista Suardi, the nobleman who had commissioned the frescoes, was situated in the garden of his country house at Trescore Balneario, a few miles from Bergamo. The encounter between the Venetian painter and his refined patron, in a year marked by obscure signs in the heavens and heretical stirrings, produced one of the century's most unusual cycles of paintings, not only from the artistic viewpoint but also from that of the complexity of its doctrinal underpinnings.

The paintings of the great Venetian artist are thoroughly analyzed on the visual plane as well, by means of a lavish set of illustrations. A series of explanatory diagrams and close-up photographs, on a one-to-one scale, permit the reader to appreciate the high formal qualities of this cycle of paintings and to get to the heart of its beauty and meaning.

In this volume the author, Francesca Cortesi Bosco, traces the dense web of religious and cultural motivations that lie behind Lotto's masterpiece, presenting a fascinating picture of the artistic life of the time and opening up completely new prospects for its interpretation.

Francesca Cortesi Bosco is an expert on the painting of the Renaissance. The author of a series of essays on Lorenzo Lotto that have appeared in magazines, she has also published Gli affreschi dell'Oratorio Suardi. Lorenzo Lotto nella crisi della Riforma (Bergamo 1980) and Il coro intarsiato di Lotto e Capoferri per Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo (Bergamo 1987).