Resumen de Lotto's carpets: materiality, textiles, and composition in Renaissance painting
Throughout his oeuvre, the Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto (ca. 1485–1556) demonstrated a sustained interest in the depiction of carpets. Previous scholarly contributions have considered the carpets in Lotto’s paintings to discuss the role of textiles in civic life and in the Republic of Venice’s commercial ties in the Eastern Mediterranean. The examination of materiality and textile studies offers insights into how the carpet assumes multiple roles in the paintings themselves: as a go-between among media; an interlocutor between figures; a palette; and, finally, a site for thinking about the goals of composition.
