Renaissance Faces: Lotto’s Portraits

Fascinating workshop at the National Gallery looking at the portraits of Lorenzo Lotto .

This day, led by Caroline Brooke, was a good compliment to the current exhibition. She began by looking at what we know about Lotto’s life. She looked at why he traveled so much and how he picked up the styles of the cities he worked in. She also looked at some of his altarpieces as it was these commissions which brought him to the cities and it was while there that he then picked up the portrait work. She also pointed out that he wouldn’t have had a workshop because of his travels and would have to have found new artists in each city to work with him.

We then put Lotto’s work in the context of other Renaissance portrait work. We talked about the importance of portraiture in Venice, where he trained, and the influence of Flemish art on his work.

We also spent time in the exhibition with a list of questions to consider when looking at the pictures and were encouraged to discuss this with each other in front of the work. This did make you look at different aspects such as the symbols being used and the way he used paint. We returned to the seminar room to discuss this as a group.

This day really shed light on the exhibition and I want to go back and look at it again with fresh eyes.