Holy Family with Angels

This painting is a variation on the traditional Venetian pictorial type representing the Virgin and Child with saints in a landscape. The idyllic group comprises the Virgin and the Christ child, Joseph (at the left), the child John the Baptist, his mother Elizabeth (the Virgin’s elder sister) and his father Zacharias (at the right). It was painted in the Marches, probably for a local patron, but for some reason it remained in Lotto’s possession. He left the painting to the religious community in Loreto after his death.