Lorenzo Lotto -Painter

The Church  of S. Francesco alle Scale overlooks the irregular-shaped piazza with the same name form a top a flight of steps, creating a lovely scene. The original church and annexed convent date from 1323 and were the work of Franciscans, who dedicated the Church to Santa Maria Maggiore. At the beginning of 1400 the convent was enlarged and a monumental staircase was simultaneously built from the street below that gave access directly to the church. The grand portal was created by Giorgio Orsini, from Dalmatia, known as Giorgio da Sebenico (1454) who was inspired by the Gothic style. The same artist created the statues and reliefs in 1454. The portal is enclosed by two pillars, decorated with Statues of Saints, which support a grand baldachin that culminates in a flourish of pinnacles. One of the most expressive aspects is the series of twenty heads 8including two leonines) that adorn the jamb and architrave. Some scholars wanted to see Dante, Petrarca, Laura, Boccaccio. In the annex San Francesco, laterally Sant'Antonio da Padova e San Lodovico da Tolosa San Bernardino from Siena and Santa Chiara below. Major restructuring work, was carried out from 1777 to 1790 by Francesco Maria Ciaraffoni, by raising the facade. Next it was expropriated and used for military purposes and as a hospital during Napoleon’s reign (1789) The Church was restored and reopened in 1953, and then again following the earthquake in 1972. The most recent restoration work returned the Church interior with a single nave,to the way it looked in the 18th century . In terms of art, of note are the plaster Gloria by Gioacchino Varlè on the main altar, the Battesimo di Cristo by Pellegrino Tibaldi on the first altar on the right, the Holy House of Loreto and the Saints by Andrea Lilli on the opposite altar, and especially, the grand canvas by Lorenzo Lotto in the apse, depicting the Assumption, originally painted in 1550, but repainted in the 18th century.

The “Deposition” (by Lorenzo Lotto) of Christ's body in the sepulcre, a painting by Lorenzo Lotto, is set in a rocky and barren landscape that opens, in the background, in a docile sea gulf. The lifeless body of Christ is minute, whereas his facial features are sharp and contracts. Gestures re theatrical as well as the expressions of the characters surrounding Jesus: Mary expresses her despair; a pious woman tearing her hair, Maria Cleofe moves away weeping as if she could not support this pain. Maddalena's mouth opens in a muffled cry. John the Evangelist clenches his fists, Peter, resigned, hold on tight in his hand the nails exhibited as a sinister legacy, Nicodemo grips with the teeth the funeral shroud and put right into the sarcophagus jesus' lifeless body.

In the spring of 1537, the Dominican Friars from Cingoli commissioned Lotto to paint a picture for the high altar of their renovated Church. This painting, devoted to the subject of the Lady of the Rosary, was completed by Lotto in 1539, as we can read on the majestic stone on which Mary’s throne lies. This impressive picture, 389×264 cm, is undoubtedly one of Lotto’s “masterpieces”: when he painted it, he was sixty years old by then and he confirmed his stylistic, technical, cultural and spiritual competence; indeed the Madonna of the Rosary in Cingoli is one of the most elaborate and semantically deep paintings of the sensitive and erudite Venetian artist.

On an almost nocturnal sky, a majestic rose garden stands out; in the background is a wood trellis on which there are fifteen medallions arranged in three different levels forming a sort of pyramid. These medallions represent the subjects of the fifteen mysteries of the Virgin cult of the Rosary. Detailed masterpieces in the masterpiece.
A limitless wall blocks the bottom of the big rose garden. This wall is made of large blocks and it has been eroded over time; it is another background to the holy conversation with the Virgin, who is on the throne with Jesus. She is surrounded by Saints who are honouring her. They are arranged in three different levels: on the first level there is Saint Dominic and Saint Esuperanzio (patron saint of Cingoli); on the second level there is Maria Magdalene, in a smart dress of the 16th Century and Catherine of Siena; on the last level there are the Dominican Saints Vincent Ferrer and the unmistakable Peter of Verona.

The long relationship between Lorenzo Lotto and The Marches began in Recanati and lasted till the end of the painter’s life. In 1506 the fathers of the Church of San Domenico asked him to paint a big Polyptych that was accomplished two years later, in 1508. The “Transfiguration” painted for the Church of Santa Maria di Castelnuovo and the “San Giacomo Pellegrino” (St. James the pilgrim), instead, date back to around 1512, when Lotto was in Rome, working with Raphaël to the Vatican Rooms. Initially, the “Transfiguration” included a predella of which two sections are kept in the Hermitage and in the Brera museums. Around 1530 Lotto returned to Recanati where he painted the famous “Annunciation” for the Oratorio of Santa Maria dei Mercanti. All his paintings are nowadays kept in the municipal gallery, the Museo Civico Villa Colloredo Mels.

The long relationship between Lorenzo Lotto and The Marches began in Recanati and lasted till the end of the painter’s life.The “San Vincenzo Ferrer in Gloria”, in the Church of San Domenico, is slightly subsequent to the other paintings in the Marche and it is the only fresco produced by Lotto in this region. All his paintings are nowadays kept in the municipal gallery, the Museo Civico Villa Colloredo Mels, except for the fresco which is still in its original location: the Church of San Domenico.