Altar polyptych of San Bartolomeo, Bergamo, main panel: Enthroned Madonna with Angels and Saints - Alexander of Bergamo, Barbara, Roch, Dominic

A hierarchy with a floor plan

A polyptych distributes rank across panels, and the record names this one as the main panel of an altar polyptych. The title then lists the occupants in order: an enthroned Madonna, angels, and four saints given by name. Enthronement, plural attendance, and named intercession are three separate levels, and the sentence keeps them in that sequence. Sixteen of the 224 titles in this catalogue refer to an altar, a polyptych or a triptych.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1516 and gives Lorenzo Lotto, a Italian painter, with High Renaissance as the style term. The recorded dimensions are 250 x 520 cm. The measured colour family is brown. The location on record is Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy.

Named saints, numberless angels

The four saints are identified; the angels are not counted and not named. In this catalogue that pattern is close to universal, and it reflects a working rule of the tradition rather than an accident of cataloguing: individuals who were once human keep their identities, while the celestial attendants keep only their function. By recorded area this is the second largest of the 126 entries in the catalogue that carry dimensions at all.