Assumption of the Virgin, 1512
Lorenzo Lotto - Oil on panel - cm 27 x 56
After a series of attributions to Raphael and Fra’ Bartolomeo, the picture has been recognized as a work painted by Lorenzo Lotto in the years 1510-15 and identified with the central compartment of the predella of the Altarpiece of the Deposition of Christ, now in the Museo Civico of Jesi. The work came to Brera in 1855 as part of the bequest of Pietro Oggioni.
As in the painting of the same theme by Vivarini in Room VI, here we see St. Thomas, the doubting apostle, the last to arrive, running to ask Our Lady to leave behind her belt. Here you can see all Lotto’s humour as well as his realism. Notice the saint who puts on his glasses to see if the Virgin Mary has really ascended into heaven. This piece of an altarpiece goes back to the time when Lotto was already working in Rome, had painted in the Vatican and met Raphael.
