(Venice c. 1480 - c. 1556 Loreto)
Ecce Homo,
oil on panel, 55.7 x 49 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection
Exhibited: Bitonto, Galleria Nazionale della Puglia, 15 December 2012 – 8 April 2013, no. 8

Literature:
B. Aikema, L’Ecce Homo di Lorenzo Lotto in “Artibus et Historiae” (forthcoming publication, consigned January 2012).
A. Donati, Lorenzo Lotto, Ecce Homo, in Tiziano, Bordon e gli Acquaviva d’Aragona: pittori veneziani in Puglia e fuoriusciti napoletani in Francia, ed. by N. Barbone Pugliese, A. Donati, L. Puppi, exhibition catalogue, Bitonto, Galleria Nazionale della Puglia, 15 December 2012 – 8 April 2013, Foggia 2012, cat. no. 8, pp. 258–263

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for suggesting the attribution of the present painting after examination in the original. It is a rare and highly significant addition to the oeuvre of Lorenzo Lotto.

According to Aikema the extraordinary invenzione of the present composition is typical of Lorenzo Lotto, whose hand is recognizable in the tight proportions of Christ’s body, the naturalistic details as well as the facial traits which are typical of the artist together with the handling of lighting. The chronology of Lotto’s output is not always easy to reconstruct, but it seems reasonable to place the present painting between the Saint Jerome in Allentown, from 1515, and Christ Carrying the Cross, from 1526, in the Louvre and therefore Aikema has dated the present painting to around 1520.

In the present painting, Christ is not depicted as a beautiful, classical figure, as he is in Correggio’s Ecce Homo in the National Gallery in London for example, which is roughly contemporary to Lotto’s picture. It is rather Christ’s humility, his humilitas, which is being exalted here, in response to many devotional texts popular during this period, such as those by Thomas à Kempis and Battista da Crema. As such, the present composition should be seen as a highly impressive devotional picture, probably executed for one of Lotto’s patrons, either in Bergamo or in Venice, with whom he shared an intense devotion for Christ’s sufferings which was popular during this period of religious reform.

Christ is shown crowned with thorns, with his head bend forward in pain and his eyes closed. Around his shoulders is draped the red mantle and in his hand is the mock scepter: this is an image of Christ before the crowd present at his trial, Ecce Homo, as it is described in Matthew 27: 28, 29 and in John 19: 5. As Christ is represented in a half-length position, this Ecce Homo is part of a pictorial tradition developed in the course of the fifteenth century, both North and South of the Alps, showing Christ or the Madonna in “close up”, in order to convey the idea of a direct, personal contact with the spectator. The present picture comes close to certain Lombard versions of the Ecce Homo theme, in particular those by Andrea Solario (Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Johnson Collection, and Leipzig Museum). However, there is a subtle, essential difference: in Solario’s pictures Christ stands erect, whereas in the present work Christ bends forward with his large hand which is intentionally almost out of proportional with the rest of the body. The hand is nearest to the onlooker and appears to be almost tangibly present.

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for his help in the cataloguing of the present lot.