Vierge à l'Enfant avec des saints

Lorenzo Lotto signed and dated this altarpiece 1521, in the middle of the dozen or so years he spent in Bergamo, a mainland town under Venice's rule. He was away from the big Venetian commissions and painting for local patrons instead. A friend, a Bergamo man named Balsarino Marchetti Angelini, paid for both this picture and the chapel it was made for. The Virgin sits enthroned with the Christ Child, ringed by four standing saints, while at the foot of the throne the young John the Baptist plays with a lamb. It is a warm, crowded, unhierarchical gathering, the kind of gentle human touch Lotto liked. Five centuries on, the panel still hangs in the church of Santo Spirito it was painted for, where it was cleaned and restored a few years ago.