Lorenzo Lotto's Nativity on loan to Milan's Museo Diocesano for Christmas 2025

For Christmas 2025, the Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini in Milan presents its seventeenth annual exhibition featuring a masterpiece of ancient Italian art: Lorenzo Lotto's 'Nativity' on loan from the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena. Lotto (Venice, 1480 – Loreto, 1556), a Venetian-born painter known for his vibrant palette and psychological depth, has been historically labeled a 'provincial painter' for his focus on smaller towns in Lombardy and Veneto. The exhibition includes a theatrical scenographic path emphasizing light, with three-dimensional silhouettes of Mary, the two midwives, Joseph, and the infant Jesus. The painting is rare for its explicit depiction of Jesus's umbilical cord and the enigmatic woman opposite the Virgin, identified as either Salomé or Anastasia from the Apocryphal Gospels. Lotto's work, rediscovered in the 20th century, is noted for its human and realistic portrayal of religious scenes, contrasting with the formal state portraiture of Titian. The exhibition runs throughout Advent and beyond.