came under the patronage of bishop Bernardo de' Rossi. The already mentioned painting Allegory of Virtue and Vice was intended as an allegorical cover of his portrait (1505) of the bishop (now in National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples), who had survived an assassination attempt. The painting St. Jerome in the Desert (1500 or 1506; Louvre, Paris) shows his youthful inexperience as a draughtsman, however the dramatic rocky landscape is accentuated by the red garment of the saint, while at the same time giving an early impression of his skill as a miniaturist. He painted his first altarpieces for the parish church San Cristina al Tiverone (1505) and the baptistery of the Cathedral of Asolo (1506), both still on display in those churches. Recanati (1506–1508) and Rome (1508–1510) In 1508 he began the Recanati Polyptych altarpiece for the church of San Domenico; this two-tiered and rather conventionally painted polyptych consists of six panels. His portrait Young Man against a White Curtain in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (c. 1506) and Adoration of the Child (c. 1508) in the National Museum in Kraków with Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus portraited as Saint Catherine, are paintings from this period. As he became a respected painter, he came to the attention of Bramante, the papal architect, who was passing through Loreto (a pilgrimage site near Recanati). Lotto was invited to Rome to decorate the papal apartments, but nothing survives of this work, as it was destroyed a few years later. This was probably because he had imitated the style of Raphael, a rapidly rising star in the Papal court; indeed he had done it before, in the Transfiguration of the Recanati polyptych. The Marche (1511–1513) and Bergamo (1513–1525) In 1511 he was at work for the confraternity of the Buon Gesù in Jesi, painting an Entombment (Pinacoteca Civica, Jesi); soon after he was painting altarpieces in Recanati: a Transfiguration (c.1512, now in the Pinacoteca Comunale, Recanati and a fresco (St Vincent Ferrer) for the church of San Domenico. His work in Bergamo, the westernmost town of the Venetian republic, was to prove his best and most productive artistic period, when he received many commissions from wealthy merchants, well educated professionals and local aristocrats. He had become a rich colourist and an experienced draughtsman, who also developed the concept of the psychological portrait that revealed the thoughts and emotions of his subjects. In this he