Madonna of the Rosary by Lorenzo Lotto

Madonna of the Rosary, Lorenzo Lotto, Cingoli, Italy 1539

In the spring of 1537, the Dominican Friars from Cingoli, Italy commissioned Lorenzo Lotto to paint a picture for the high altar of their renovated Church. Madonna del Rosario, devoted to the subject of the Lady of the Rosary, was completed by Lotto in 1539.

Saint Dominic receives the rosary from Virgin Mary as two angels spread hope and joy in the form of roses and holy water.

It is dawn, a new day begins, and a tree of roses serves as a majestic background for the scene. On a higher level, the viewer can perceive fifteen medallions arranged in three rows of five. The five medallions in each row are connected to each other, and form an upward pointing arrow’s end. Each one of  them presents a scene from the fifteen mysteries of the Virgin of the Rosary.  

On the top row, there are the five Joyful Mysteries (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Finding of Jesus at the Temple). On the second row, we find the five Sorrowful Mysteries (Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Carrying of the Cross, Crucifixion). On the third row, the five Glorious Mysteries (Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption of Mary, Coronation of the Virgin) are presented.

But there is a wall standing between that spiritual garden wherein the tree of roses lays and the humans below, though it seems to show signs of deterioration. The Virgin Mother sits on a throne on the people’s side, holding a vivacious Baby Jesus in her left arm. They are indeed Saints, who have come to honor her, and are arranged in three levels as well.

On the first level there is Saint Dominic, who is receiving the rosary beads from the Virgin, and Saint Esuperanzio (patron saint of Cingoli, offering a lifelike scale model of the town seen from the east. That has captivated Baby Jesus’ attention and he seems eager to take it. On the second level there is Mary Magdalene, in a smart dress of the 16th Century (according to legend, she looks like Sperandia Franceschini Simonetti, a noblewoman from Cingoli) and Catherine of Siena; on the last level, we find the Dominican Saints Vincent Ferrer, and the unmistakable Peter of Verona, recognizable from the odd image of the cleaver in his head which recalls his martyrdom. 

At the bottom and in the center of the picture, there is a baby John the Baptist who is pointing to Jesus and then there are two angels; one of them is joyfully spreading a rain of rose petals with both hands contained in the wicker basket in front of him. This gesture recalls the ancient folk tradition of spreading flowers when the image of the Virgin appeared in the religious festivals. The other angel is spreading the Water of Life, symbolic of the influx from the Holy Mother whom through the gift of the Rosary grants us indulgences and washes away our sins.