Altarpiece of the Halberd

By the late 1530s Lorenzo Lotto, never much rewarded in Venice, had drifted down the Adriatic coast to Ancona, and it was there in 1538 that a local nobleman commissioned this altarpiece for his side chapel. The Madonna and Child sit high on a throne while two angels hold a crown above them, and four saints stand below. One of them, Simon, holds a halberd, the long pole-axe that gives the picture its name. Lotto turned the blade upside down, and it is usually read as a sign of peace, weapons laid to rest. Giorgio Vasari, writing his lives of the artists, saw the painting hanging in its church here. A small crowning panel of a dove and cherubs, separated from it long ago, only turned up again in 1994.