Lorenzo Lotto was born in 1480 in Venice, where he spent his childhood and adolescence and where he received his first education at the school of Alvise Vivarini. He soon moved to Treviso where, at a very young age, began his artistic activity, which also led him to work in the Marche region. In 1506 he was in Recanati, between 1508 and 1511 he moved to Rome where he worked in the Vatican rooms in the same years as Raphael. He took part in the execution of frescoes, which today are almost totally lost or difficult to identify.
In 1512-1513 he arrived in Bergamo to participate in the competition for the large Martinengo altarpiece, completed in 1516 and today located in the church of San Bartolomeo. During his stay in Bergamo, until 1524, he painted his masterpieces both for religious buildings (Santo Spirtito, San Bernardino, Sant’Alessandro in Colonna e della Croce, San Michele al Pozzo Bianco) and for a rich commission with portraits and works of private devotion. In 1522 it will be the turn of the composite Polyptych of Ponteranica, in ‘24 of the frescoes of Trescore and drawings for the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore, those of San Giorgio in Credaro, then, from Venice, of the Assumption of Celana (1527) and the Sedrina Altarpiece (1542).
In 1525 he returned to Venice, where he alterned stays in the lagoon and again in Treviso. In his mature age he returned to work in the Marche region until 1522, when he decided to retire to the Holy House of Loreto and in 1544 to become an oblate, or religious. Despite this life choice, he continued his activity, as a painter, with a studio, students, clients and the production of important works. He passed away in Loreto between the end of 1556 and the beginning of 1557.