Enthroned Madonna with Angels and Saints, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Augustine on the left, St. Sebastian and St. Anthony the Abbot on the right

Left and right for the saints, nothing for the angels

This is the longest kind of title in the catalogue, and its length is spent entirely on humans. Four saints are named and each is given a side of the composition. The angels get a plural and no position at all. That asymmetry is not carelessness — it is the hierarchy showing through the grammar, since a named intercessor has to be findable and an attendant does not.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1521 and gives Lorenzo Lotto, a Italian painter, with High Renaissance as the style term. The recorded dimensions are 268 x 287 cm. The measured colour family is ochre. No location is recorded.

A pair, five years after the polyptych

This painter has six entries in the catalogue, and two of them share this title formula almost exactly, both carrying the same date. Comparing them is legitimate here because both facts come from the record. What the record does not supply is a location for this one, so where the panel now hangs is simply not something this entry can report. The recorded dimensions put it at altar scale.