Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Lotto’s Heresy

Thu, March 30, 3:30 to 5:00pm, Palmer House Hilton, Floor: Third Floor, Indiana Room

Abstract

In 1540 the Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto executed portraits of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora. The paintings, since long lost, have justly led to speculations regarding Lotto's position in the religious debates of his day and the possibility of dissent. The mysterious Christ in Glory in Vienna, painted 1543–44 while Lotto was living in Treviso, I argue takes a heterodox text for its materia, the Beneficio di Cristo attributed to Benedetto da Mantova. Because of misinterpretations of the painting's subject matter earlier attempts at connecting the painting with the Beneficio have only operated at a general level. Taking the painting for a polemical demonstration of Sola fides, salvation through faith alone as opposed to good works, I consider heretical culture in Venice, the status of the visionary in Lotto's art, and the painter's engagement with Pauline theology, so fundamental to Lutheran theology.

Author