New faces, fresh memories and a grand day out with Aardman – the week in art

Arresting portraits from Catherine Opie, exploring the past with paint and the geniuses of British animation unpack their secrets – all in your weekly dispatch

Catherine Opie: To Be SeenPowerful photographs that put people before you heroically, on tour from London’s National Portrait Gallery. Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, from 8 August

Earth MattersArtists including Tania Kovats and Alberta Whittle explore the legacy of the 18th-century geologist James Hutton. Inverleith House, Edinburgh, until 1 November

VestigesPaintings by the talented and imaginative Laura Footes feature in this group show about memory. Annely Juda Fine Art, London, until 28 August

Inside AardmanThe geniuses of British animation invite you for a slice of wensleydale in the summer holidays. Young V&A, London, until 15 November

FfasiwnYoung people work with artists Clémentine Schneidermann and Charlotte James to deconstruct fashion. National Museum Cardiff until 4 April 2027

Virgin and Child with Saints by Lorenzo Lotto, 1505

Lotto is a wondrous portrait painter, and that feel for faces comes through here in the way he brings a gathering of saints to life. The two old white-bearded men at the left of the Virgin Mary – Saint Jerome and Saint Peter – are huddled as if they’ve been conversing passionately: while Jerome looks broodingly at Jesus, perhaps meditating on his destiny of crucifixion, Peter’s strong, almost angry face looks out at us. But the biggest departure from convention is Saint Francis of Assisi in his rough brown robe on the other side of Mary. He’s often shown as humble and gentle but here he looks more confrontational and impassioned. The female saint in the shadows hasn’t been identified: she is lost in introspection and melancholy in a way that holds you. This ability to give people intense, unexpected, mysterious character was to make Lotto one the greatest portraitists of all time. In this early work he sets out his wares and scouts for commissions. He also shows off his ability to paint pastorals like his contemporaries Giorgione and Titian: two woodsmen are chopping down a tree in the background, as if to prepare the cross on which Christ will die. This violent image is ironically set on a calm, green wooded hill under a stilled blue sky with silky white clouds. It’s a lovely vista but portraiture, not landscape would prove to be Lotto’s thing. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

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