1. Lorenzo Lotto was active during the High Renaissance and the first half of the Mannerist period, but his work maintained a generally similar High Renaissance style throughout his career, although his nervous and eccentric posings and distortions represented a transitional stage to the Florentine and Roman Mannerists.
Lorenzo Lotto was certainly not as highly regarded in Venice as in the other towns where he worked, for he had a stylistic individuality, even an idiosyncratic style, and, after his death, he gradually became neglected and then almost forgotten.
Lorenzo Lotto soon left Venice, because there the competition for a young painter would have been too great, with established names such as Giorgione, Palma the Elder and certainly with Titian.
Nevertheless, Giorgio Vasari mentions in the third part of his book Vite that Lorenzo Lotto was a friend of Palma the Elder.
Lorenzo Lotto painted his first altarpieces for the parish church San Cristina al Tiverone and the baptistery of the Cathedral of Asolo, both still on display in those churches.
Lorenzo Lotto was invited to Rome to decorate the papal apartments, but nothing survives of this work, as it was destroyed a few years later.
Lorenzo Lotto had become a rich colourist and an experienced draughtsman, who developed the concept of the psychological portrait that revealed the thoughts and emotions of his subjects.
Lorenzo Lotto began 1513 with a monumental altarpiece: the "Martinengo Altarpiece" in the Dominican church of the Santi Bartolomeo e Stefano in Bergamo.
In Venice, Lorenzo Lotto first resided at the Dominican monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, but he was forced to leave after a few months after a conflict with intarsia artist Fra Damiano da Bergamo.
Lorenzo Lotto moved again to Treviso in 1542 and back to Venice in 1545.
Lorenzo Lotto died in 1556 and was buried, at his request, in a Dominican habit.
Lorenzo Lotto himself left many letters and a detailed notebook, giving insight to his life and work.
Lorenzo Lotto's influence was felt by many painters, including probably Giovanni Busi, and Ercole Ramazzani, born in Arcevia and active near Jesi.
Thanks to the work of the art historian Bernard Berenson, Lorenzo Lotto was rediscovered at the end of the 19th century.