MY IDENTIFICATION OF A SELF-PORTRAIT BY LORENZO

LOTTO (1480 -1557) IN THE “PREDELLA MARTINENGO”

AND OF A CONNECTED REBUS IN THE SAME PICTURE .
By Maurizio Sorelli, Bergamo, Italy

Abstract
I present my identification of a self-portrait as a Dominican Friar by the great venetian painter
Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1557) in the well-known painting “Saint Dominic reviving Napoleon Orsini”
(1516), at the Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo, Italy. I have also discovered a rebus
connected with the self-portrait, in the same picture, which sends again to another rebus in another
painting by Lotto, the “Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine” (1523), in the same picture Gallery. I
propose my solutions for the two rebuses and present a few correlated questions (please see full
article in Italian for further details) .

Hi Lorenzo, see you at the Accademia !

If you are at the Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti in Bergamo, Italy, you will be able to look straight
at Lorenzo Lotto's eyes . I had always been convinced that the look of the great painter of Venetian
Renaissance was as his drawing “Portrait of a bearded Man” in the Uffizi, Florence, shows us : an
honest face, with the eyes of an often ill-treated man .
That morning in june 2007, at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo I realized for the first time that in
the well-known painting “Saint Dominic reviving Napoleon Orsini, nephew of the Cardinal of
Fossanova” (1516) by Lorenzo Lotto, the Dominican Friar with the red book, observing us behind a
Cardinal Bishop, in the picture, has the same face as the “Bearded Man” by Lotto, of the Uffizi
Cabinet of Drawings , has .

Searching for proofs about the reality of my identification , I noticed that Napoleon Orsini' s full cut
mantle appears, in the picture, like a perfect O (O for Orsini ?) ; S. Dominic's contour looks like a D
(D for Dominic) ; the profile of Cardinal Stephen Fossanova's body and train draws a S with a
superimposed F (S and F for Stephen Fossanova) and the Friar' s arms look like two L's (for
Lorenzo Lotto) .
So, alphabetic letters are associated with some men, in that painting, by means of the initials of the
first and/or last name of them .
The Dignitary on the left, the only fellow with a striped suit (we know his name: Nicolò Bonghi)
shows his cloack on his left arm wrapped in a quite strange way : you see it forms a capital B, while
his body itself, hammered in place like a nail, suggests the letter I ; his triangular hat, furthermore,
looks like a circumflex accent, used in Italy during Renaissance to contract written words: e.g. “î
Rome” instead of “in Rome” . Due to all these reasons, and considering that Lotto paints himself,
in that picture, like an observing Dominican, the hidden phrase has, in my opinion, the following
appearance : “In B.. S... F... Domenicano Osservante Lorenzo Lotto” .
The Painter was in Bergamo, at that time (1516) , thus we have : “In Bergamo S... F... Domenicano
Osservante Lorenzo Lotto” . If a Painter becomes a Friar, he takes the Orders (in italian : si fa frate.
Simple Past: si fece). So, I propose the following solution for the rebus “In Bergamo si fece
Domenicano Osservante Lorenzo Lotto” . English translation : “In Bergamo became Dominican
Observant Lorenzo Lotto” , that is the scene painted in the picture ( 'fare', that is 'to make' , means
'to paint' in painters' jargon ) .

Since Niccolò Bonghi appears (once again hammered like a nail and with the same hat) also in the
well-known “Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine “ (1523) by Lotto (which is in the same room of the
same Accademia in Bergamo) , it's therefore reasonable to guess the presence of another rebus in
that painting . Bonghi, the donor of the painting = In ; The B for Bergamo is not there, but in the
grey rectangle in the upper portion of the canvas there likely was, till 1528, a view of Bergamo ( of
Mt. Sinai according to some scholars : unlikely, by virtue of these discoveries of mine ) which a
French soldier stole, that year, during the occupation of the city . The angel on the right keeps his
arms in the “double L position” : = Lorenzo Lotto . St. Catherine shows to have the same function
of Cardinal Fossanova in the Predella Martinengo: = S + F . The Child's shape is specular with
Catherine's upper one and therefore suggests another F . The Lady, lastly, recalls a big C to mind .
Since many clients of Lotto, in the years 1522 - '25, followed franciscan doctrines (especially about
the immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin) , I propose the following solution for the rebus : “In
Bergamo Lorenzo Lotto si fece Francescano Conventuale” . Translation : “In Bergamo Lorenzo
Lotto became Friar [Minor] Conventual “ .

Many questions arise : why does Lotto declare himself belonging to those two mendicant Orders ?
Why Friar Conventual instead of Observant ? Is he joking or he refers to serious programs and
artistic choices ? In the Italian full version of this paper I try to answer these questions and a few
others ( please see that PDF for the complete description of my discovery and further details ) .

Copyright © 2007 by MAURIZIO SORELLI - All Rights reserved