Lorenzo Lotto
Virgin and Child with SS. John the Baptist and Peter Martyr

The landscape-format picture is painted with oil on wood. It measures 55 centimetres in height and almost 90 centimetres in width. It comes from the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples. 

Mary is sitting in front of a curtain with her son on her lap. Next to her are a monk with a knife in his head and a small boy. A mountainous landscape stretches out behind them. 

Mary and the infant Jesus are in the right-hand third of the painting. A green and orange curtain forms the background. The Mother of God is wearing a blue cloak with a golden yellow lining over a red dress. A white veil with a gold-coloured ornamental border covers her hair. She has tilted her head forwards and is looking at her son. The naked Jesus is sitting on her left thigh. Mary clasps his breast with her left hand. The child has raised his right hand in blessing and is holding up his index and middle fingers. A golden halo runs around his head. 

Mary's outstretched right hand lies on the head of the little boy standing in front of her. It is John. He is depicted in the centre of the lower edge of the picture from his head to below his chest. John has placed the fingertips of both hands on his chest and is looking up devotedly at the Christ Child. 

Behind him stands St Peter Martyr, also known as St Peter of Verona. He has a gaunt face, brown eyes, a strong nose and large ears. St Peter is wearing a white robe with a black cloak and hooded cloak over it. This clothing identifies him as a monk of the Dominican order. The monk has tilted his head with his short black hair and tonsure towards Mary. He looks enraptured. The blade of a cleaver is stuck horizontally in the top of his head, a dagger in his chest. There are pale red traces of blood on his ear and in the chest area of his white robe. Peter is holding a palm branch in his left hand as a sign of a martyr. 

The expansive landscape behind Petrus consists of a mountain range on the horizon, in front of which a river meanders between wooded hills. On its banks, high villas, towers, a horseman and a shepherd with his flock can be seen behind a small bridge. 

Cloud veils darken the sky in the upper left corner of the picture and cast shadows on the landscape below. To the right, the sky clears. Mary and the infant Jesus appear in bright light. 

At the bottom right, on a piece of the parapet that can be seen between Mary's cloak and her dress, the artist has signed the painting in gold.

The Christ child is sitting on his mother's lap, raising his hand in a gesture of blessing. Facing him are Saint Peter Martyr and Saint John the Baptist, both worshipping the child.

This devotional painting is by Lorenzo Lotto, who was younger than Giovanni Bellini by roughly 45 years. Yet in his painting, he borrows a subject originally developed in Bellini's workshop. Take a look at the two images provided for comparison next to it or in your media guide, which are attributed to Vincenzo Catena and Fra Marco Pensaben. All three devotional paintings depict Mary in characteristic pose: with head bowed and left hand holding the child, she stretches her right arm way out in front. But the purpose of her gesture is different: in the painting by Lorenzo Lotto, she is blessing Saint John with that hand. Originally, there was probably a donor in the place now occupied by the Baptist. In the paintings by Vincenzo Catena and Fra Marco Pensaben, however, the Madonna's hand rests on a book.

One and the same motif in different works. The obvious parallels provide an insight into the way the Bellini workshop operated – as one of the largest painting workshops in early modern Europe. They also give an insight into the way a popular subject was repeatedly copied and modified. More than twenty works can be traced back to this original!

The baby Jesus sits on Mary's lap and makes a blessing gesture. In front of them we see Peter Martyr and the young John.

This picture was painted by Lorenzo Lotto. He took an idea from the workshop of his teacher Giovanni Bellini. Here you can see two pictures by two other students of Bellini. Both pictures show the typical posture of Mary: she has tilted her head, holds the child with her left hand and stretches her right arm far forward. The meaning of this gesture is different in each picture: In the picture by Lotto, Mary blesses little John with her right hand. In the other two pictures, Mary's hand is resting on a book.

In Bellini's workshop, popular images were painted again and again and slightly modified. In more than twenty paintings, Mary was used in the same pose as a model.