Lotto, Lorenzo (1480-1557)
Madonna con Bambino tra i Santi Ignazio di Antiochia e Onofrio (Madonna and Child between Saints Ignatius of Antioch and Onuphrius)
1508
Oil on panel, 53 x 67 cm
Galleria Borghese, Roma
This signed and dated painting in its original frame has been in the Collection since 1613. Evident in it are references to painters from Venice (Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano), as is the strong influence of Dürer, who was active in Venice in 1506. Nothing is known about the provenance of the painting, which may have been executed during Lotto’s stay in Recanati (1506–08), or during the one in Rome, which began at the end of 1508, when the artist was active in the Vatican Stanze. The presence of Onuphrius and Ignatius of Antioch has been linked to the reformist ideas of the time, which proposed them as models to imitate. (GB)