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Lotto’s musical environment could also be represented by the madrigals of the Franco-Flemish composer Philippe Verdelot, whom Titian portrayed at the keyboard in his Concert (Florence, Palazzo Pitti), accompanied by his master, Obrecht. Verdelot, an exact contemporary of the painter, spent most of his life in Italy. He was in Florence in 1522, as maestro di cappella for the baptism chapel. His madrigals portray the style predominant before 1530, at the moment when Lotto produced his best portraits. Besides his important work at the basilica of San Marco, Adrian Willaert also composed an important number of secular pieces. He especially appreciated Petrarch’s poems and the lighter forms, such as the villanesca alla napolitana, (which were sophisticated parodies of madrigals written in the guise of peasant songs) in style at around 1530. Willaert published a collection of these in 1544. The inspiration is familiar, taken from street scenes. It is interesting to quote a villotta, a reincarnation of the villanelle in the Italian north, Un giorno mi prega, where the poem set to music by Willaert mentions a “widow’s boat”. The theme of travel would be a familiar one to our Lotto and the city of Bergamo where Lotto lived for nearly ten years.
To bring Lotto and Willaert together raises possibilities for some interesting speculation. One can easily imagine that the painter, who worked in so many religious establishments, could have heard one of Willaert’s madrigals or villanescas during a service, mass or in a palace, even though both men had completely different careers. After being named maestro di cappella at San Marco, the Flemish musician remained in Venice founding an institute, where Andrea Gabrielli, de Rore, and also the theoretician Gioseffo Zarlino later worked.
In 1545 Willaert arrived in Venice and Lotto returned there at the age of 65. But their paths eventually diverge. In spite of the admiration and the respect of the artistic milieu, crystallized in Aretino’s letter of 1548, his reasons for leaving may forever remain obscure. Financial difficulties are one possibility, but there may have been religious issues as well. Rejected by the Dominicans, for whom he had painted so many important works, Lotto eventually resigned himself to leaving Venice in 1551. He reached the Holy House of Loreto, where he became an Oblate monk and died alone, miserable, leaving no disciples.
Translated by Denis Egan
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