LOTTO, Lorenzo
(b. ca. 1480, Venezia, d. 1556, Loreto)

Portrait of a Married Couple

1523-24
Oil on canvas, 96 x 116 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

During the years spent in Bergamo, Lotto repeatedly had the opportunity to develop his skill as a portraitist, sometimes including more than one sitter in the painting. Various symbolic features (among which the detail of the squirrel at the centre of the composition, barely seen in the reproduction, stands out) transform this painting into a eulogy of marital fidelity.

The inscription 'Homo nunquam' held by the husband is reference to the matrimonial fidelity.




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