LORENZO LOTTO
20 Saint Martin Dividing His
Cloak with a Beggar
Brush and gray-brown wash, white and cream gouache
heightening, and black chalk on brown paper; H: 31.4
cm (i2^3 /8in.); W: 21.7 cm (8^9 /i6in.)
83.00.262
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) signed... entius
Lotus in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: S. Schwartz, New York; art market,
Boston.EXHIBITIONS: Five Centuries of Drawings, Montreal Mu-
seum of Fine Arts, October-November 1953 , no. 53.
Old Master Drawings, Newark Museum, March-May
1960 , no. 23. Drawings from New York Collections: The
Italian Renaissance, Metropolitan Museum of Art and
Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, November 1965 -
January 1966, no. 45 (catalogue byj. Bean and F. Stamp-
fle). Early Venetian Drawings from Private Collections and
the Fogg, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cam-
bridge, February-April 1983.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Schilling, "A Signed Drawing by
Lorenzo Lotto," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6 per., 4 (April
1953), pp. 277-279; B. Berenson, Lorenzo Lotto (New
York, 1956), pp. 124-125; P. Pouncey, Lotto disegnatore
(Vicenza, 1965), p. 13; R. Pallucchini and G. M. Canova,
Lopera completa del Lotto (Milan, 1974), p. 122, no. 28 i.e.
THIS MAJOR SHEET BY LOTTO WAS FIRST PUBLISHED
by Schilling (1953), who noted its broad, painterly effect
and related it to the brush drawing in a painting by Lotto,
the so-called Lucretia (circa 1529/30) in the National Gal-
lery, London. Based on this analogy, he dated the Mu-
seum's drawing to circa 1530. The .most penetrating
analysis of the drawing is by Pouncey (1965), who has
pointed to the complex architecture and rich chiaroscu-
ro, which create a proto-Baroque atmosphere. Unlike
Schilling, who believed the drawing to have been made
in preparation for an individual painting or for a fresco,
Pouncey has suggested that its asymmetry and very low
viewpoint indicate that it was intended for one of a pair
of organ shutters. Although no documentary evidence
has been found on this issue, his solution is convincing.
In its stylistic character, the drawing owes much to
the example of Pordenone (Pouncey 1965; Bean and
Stampfle 1966, no. 45). The dramatic illusionism and
powerful sense of movement can be seen as having re-
sulted from Lotto's experience of Pordenone s work in
the church of San Rocco, Venice. The latter's panels there
date from 1528 and help to reinforce the dating of the
Museum's drawing to around 1530. As has been noted by
Schilling (1953, p. 279) and Pouncey (1965, p. 13), the
drawing is signed on the verso.60 ITALIAN SCHOOL • LOTTO