Presentation in the Temple

This is probably the last work of the artist, left unfinished due to illness and his death.

At the conclusion of a dramatic life, made even more difficult by religious doubts and financial problems, Lotto found shelter and peace in the Sanctuary of Loreto, where he became a lay brother. Here, in the years immediately preceding his death he painted his last works. This painting is the most notable of these, with its hesitant but penetrating emotion. The fatigued figure of the bearded man who appears at the door of the choir on the right has been identified as a self-portrait of the painter, now seventy-five years old.