In 1524 Lorenzo Lotto (Venice, 1480-Loreto, 1556), one of the greatest Italian artists of the Renaissance, painted the walls of a small oratory. The building, owned by Battista Suardi, the nobleman who had commissioned the frescoes, was situated in the garden of his country house at Trescore Balneario, a few miles from Bergamo. A series of explanatory diagrams and close-up photographs, on a one-to-one scale, permit the reader to appreciate the high formal qualities of this cycle of paintings and to get to the heart of its beauty and meaning. In this volume the author, Francesca Cortesi Bosco, traces the dense web of religious and cultural motivations that lie behind Lotto's masterpiece, presenting a fascinating picture of the artistic life of the time and opening up completely new prospects for its interpretation.