chiesa di San Bernardino in Pignolo

In 1521 a lay confraternity of flagellants in Bergamo, men who wore white habits and met in this small church on Via Pignolo, received the altarpiece they had ordered from Lorenzo Lotto, the Venetian painter then living in the city. The church had stood since at least 1468, built in honour of Bernardino of Siena, the Franciscan preacher who had visited Bergamo twice. Lotto signed and dated the canvas on the lowest step of the Virgin's throne.

The picture is full of movement. Flying angels hold up a great green cloth above the Madonna and Child. Saint Joseph and Bernardino stand on one side, John the Baptist and Anthony Abbot on the other, and at the foot of the throne a small angel sits writing. The art historian Roberto Longhi believed this angel influenced the one in Caravaggio's Rest on the Flight into Egypt.

The church, which was given its Neo-Gothic front in 1876, is now closed for structural repairs. The altarpiece was shown at the Accademia Carrara in 2025 and has since been displayed in the Aula Picta, the frescoed audience hall of the Bishop's Palace in the upper city, as part of the diocesan museum, until it can go back to its altar here.