| Bartolomeo,
Fra (b. 1473, Firenze, d. 1517, Pian' di Mugnone) |
| Florentine painter
of the High Renaissance. His original name was Baccio della Porta, but he
changed his name to Fra Bartolommeo when he became a Dominican friar in
1500. Born in Florence and trained there under the painter Cosimo Roselli, he was influenced by the grimly fanatic Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola to give up art and enter the order. Four years later Bartolommeo began to paint again, producing the Vision of St. Bernard (1504-1507, Accademia, Florence). After a trip to Venice in 1508, where he was strongly influenced by Giovanni Bellini's mastery of color, he became one of the chief exponents of color composition in the Florentine school. From this period date such grave, monumental altarpieces as the Eternal Father with Mary Magdalene and Saint Catherine of Siena (1509, Pinacoteca, Lucca) and the Marriage of St. Catherine (1511, Louvre, Paris; and 1512, Accademia, Florence), many done in collaboration with his friend Mariotto Albertinelli. Bartolommeo's later works, such as the Madonna della Misericordia (1515, Pinacoteca), reflect the majestic High Renaissance style of Michelangelo and Raphael, which he had encountered on a trip to Rome in 1514. "Bartolommeo, Fra," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1994 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1994 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation. |