Madonna with Child between Sts. Flavian and Onuphrius

The Virgin holds the Child at the center of a dark background, flanked by two saints, in a Holy Conversation arrangement widely used by Venetian painters of the period, such as Giovanni Bellini. She appears lost in thought, while the rather plump Child reaches toward the saint on the left, who offers him a pierced heart, an allusion to the Passion to come. Identifying that saint as Flavian, patron of Recanati, is disputed, and some scholars instead propose Ignatius of Antioch; the monogram of the name of Jesus appears on the heart. On the right stands the hermit Onuphrius, whose figure seems inspired by a Dürer work, his Christ among the Doctors, painted in Venice in 1506. The asymmetrical layout, the bright colors and the drapery, which Lotto had earlier painted like crumpled paper and now renders softer and richer in hue, show how he absorbed northern innovations while keeping his own voice.

Painter

Lorenzo Lotto

Date

1506

Medium

oil paint, panel

Dimensions

53 × 67 cm

Museum

Galleria Borghese, Paris

Movement

High Renaissance, Venetian school

Genre

religious art

Depicts

boy, Mary, woman, mother, Christ Child

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