This
work, also known as Madonna delle rose, was found in the church of San Francesco
al Monte, destroyed during the XIX century. The big painting on wood, made between
1526 and 1527, was not personally brought to the Marche by the painter, since
plague was affecting the region.
Therefore, it was shipped from Jesi to Venice, where Lotto had returned in order to seek a definitive success and where, on the contrary he found a disinterested, even hostile environment.
In this case too, there are many iconographical and chromatic innovations: Jesus lunge towards Saint Joseph, portrayed as a pilgrim (the yellow of his clothes is wonderful, as well as the worm red and the cold light blu of the clothes of St. Gerolamo and of the Virgin Mary), to the gesture of the Virgin Mary closing the Scriptures that announce her son's death.
In the lunette of the altarpiece is dealt with a Franciscan subject, in fact it was a due tribute in a work of art commissioned by the Reformed Minorites of S. Francesco al Monte. The scene is divided into two parts by the rock's contour and a fence: on the one side, there is the episode where St. Francis receives the stigmata and on the other side, there is Saint Chiara praying and showing the ostensory like in the "Miracle of Assisi", referring to the Golden Legend, where the Saint succeeded in ousting the Saracen from the city.
In this case too, the painter's art proves to be up to the standards of the other great artists of that time: the choice of portraying St. Francis from the back is a courageous and original one, and the light of the scene -which is one of the rare nocturnes in the painting of the XVI century - has highly effective "metaphysical substance".
Jesi-Pinacoteca Civica,
from the church of San Francesco al Monte.
MADONNA DELLE ROSE
Oil on board, cm 155 ´ 160
Lunette, cm 85 ´ 160