Title of Artwork: “St. Nicholas in Glory with St. John the Baptist, St. Lucy and below St. George Slaying the Dragon”
Artwork by Lorenzo Lotto
Year Created 1529
Summary of St. Nicholas in Glory with St. John the Baptist, St. Lucy and below St. George Slaying the Dragon
In the church of Santa Maria dei Carmini in Venice, Italian Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto painted Saint Nicholas around Glory, an altarpiece. It was completed in 1527-1529.
An inscription on the altar’s base reveals that Giovanni Battista Donati and his vicar Giorgio de’ Mundis commissioned the painting in 1527. As members of a merchants brotherhood dedicated to St. Nicholas, they decided on him as their patron. Before the work was completed, a frame made of Istrian stone had been prepared.
All About St. Nicholas in Glory with St. John the Baptist, St. Lucy and below St. George Slaying the Dragon
Following his return to Venice from Bergamo, this was Lotto’s first work. Contemporaries were unimpressed with the canvas, in spite of its novel aspects (such as the nighttime landscape in the lower part). Historians today believe that the painting was finished about 1529.
Albrecht Dürer’s prints inspired Lotto to set St. Nicholas in the upper centre, his face bedecked with a halo of radiant light. He is encircled by three angels who keep his mantle open and hold his customary symbols: the mitre, the bishop’s baton, and three golden balls, which recall the three maidens saved by Nicholas according to mythology.
A relic purportedly belonging to St. Lucy’s tooth is kept in the church, as is a tooth belonging to St. John the Baptist, patron saint of one of the donors.
There is a storm-battered port in the lower half of the terrain. The Danube School is clearly visible in the writing style of this part. In order to fulfil a wish of the donor, a brief scene depicting St. George slaying the dragon was inserted.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
