Though Bellini was doubtless not his teacher, the influence is clear in his early painting Virgin and Child with St. Jerome (1506; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh).

However, in his portraits and in his early painting Allegory of Virtue and Vice (1505; National Gallery of Art, Washington), he shows the influence of Giorgione's Naturalism.

As he grew older his style changed, perhaps evolving, from a detached Giorgionesque classicism, to a more vibrant dramatic setpiece, more reminiscent of his contemporary from Parma, Correggio.

Lotto soon left Venice, because there the competition for a young painter would have been too great, with established names such as Giorgione, Palma the Elder and certainly with Titian.

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.

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.

In this he was continuing the tradition begun by Antonello da Messina and a good example would be his Portrait of a Young Man with a Book (now in the Accademia, Venice).

This altarpiece was commissioned by Count Alessandro Martinengo-Colleoni, grandson of the famous condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni, which would be finished in 1516 and shows us the influence of Bramante and Giorgione.

[3] In 1524 he also painted cartoons with Old Testament stories, as models for the intarsia panels for the choir stalls of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo.

In Venice, Lotto first resided at the Dominican monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, but he was forced to leave after a few months after a conflict with intarsia artist Fra Damiano da Bergamo.

Lorenzo Lotto himself left many letters and a detailed notebook (Libro di spese diverse, 1538–1556), giving insight to his life and work.