Brother Gregorio Belo of Vicenza

The painting is executed in oil paint on a canvas support measuring approximately 87.3 × 71 cm, as recorded in the work’s catalogue entries and museum descriptions【1†L1-L3】【2†L1-L3】【3†L1-L3】. The composition shows a half‑length figure of Brother Gregorio Belo positioned close to the picture plane; he holds an open book in his left hand while his right hand, clenched in a fist, strikes his chest in the gesture of the penitent Saint Jerome, set against a dark sky bearing a small Crucifixion with mourners【4†L1-L4】【5†L1-L4】【6†L1-L4】. Lotto employs a restrained, “simple means” characteristic of his later style, yet renders the face with marked age and the closed hand with careful attention to tendons and pulsating veins, conveying intense psychological presence【3†L1-L4】【5†L1-L4】【6†L1-L4】.

Commissioned directly by the subject, the Hieronymite monk Gregorio Belo of Vicenza, on December 9, 1546, this oil-on-canvas portrait was completed by Lorenzo Lotto in October 1547. These dates and the transaction are recorded in the artist's personal account book, the Libro di spese diverse. An inscription on the lower right confirms the sitter's identity, his age of fifty-five, and the year 1547.

The painting remained obscure regarding its authorship for centuries; it was acquired in Venice in 1738 by Marshal Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg for 26 zecchini, who mistakenly cataloged it as a work by Paolo Veronese. It stayed within the Schulenburg family collection until 1965, when his heirs sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The correct attribution to Lotto was only established in a catalogue of the Schulenburg holdings published after 1924.

Scholars regard this 1547 portrait as one of Lorenzo Lotto's most intense late works, exemplifying the simplified means characteristic of his mature style. Art historical analysis places the painting within a turbulent period for the aging artist, linking its iconography to the religious tensions of the 1540s. The subject's penitent gesture, echoing Saint Jerome, alongside the stormy background featuring the Crucifixion, has been interpreted by historians such as Massimo Firpo and Federico Terzi as reflecting both the monk's potential proximity to Lutheran ideas and Lotto's own spiritual contrition.

This reading connects the work to Lotto's broader context involving patrons like Bernardo Bilioli and the heresy trials affecting his circle. Initially misattributed to Paolo Veronese upon its 1738 acquisition by Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, the painting was only correctly identified as a Lotto in a catalogue published after 1924.

Legacy: The portrait entered the collection of Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, who acquired it in Venice in 1738 for 26 zecchini under the mistaken belief that it was by Paolo Veronese (3). It remained in the Schulenburg family until its heirs sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1965 (3,4,5,6). Correct attribution to Lorenzo Lotto was not made until a post‑1924 catalogue of the Schulenburg collections (3).

Now housed in the Met (2), the work is cited as a key example of Lotto’s mature portraiture in later scholarship, including Carlo Pirovano’s 2002 monograph, Federico Terzi’s 2020 article, and Massimo Firpo’s 2004 study (5,6).

This painting, titled Brother Gregorio Belo of Vicenza, was created by the Italian High Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto in 1547. Executed in oil on canvas, the work depicts a specific individual, a monk named Brother Gregorio Belo. It is currently housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, serving as a significant example of Lotto's portraiture from the mid-16th century.