Cartwright, Julia: The painters of Florence: from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth century (London: John Murray, 1910)

XXIII

FRA BARTOLOMMEO
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The same Dominican convent which once numbered
Fra Angelico among its brothers, gave the world
another painter who was reckoned among the fore-
most masters of the sixteenth century. Fra Barto-
lommeo di San Marco never attained to the intense
fervour and spirituality of Fra Giovanni, but he
was a painter of great intellectual power and deep
sincerity who gave utterance to his pure and reverent
thoughts in the more perfect language of art in his
age. He is especially interesting as the chief repre-
sentative of Savonarola’s revival, who embraced the
faith of the Friar and followed in his steps to the
end, while at the same time he was one of the first
artists to accept the ideas of the new century, to
put in practice the principles of Leonardo and prepare
the way for Raphael.
Baccio della Porta, as Fra Bartolommeo was called
in his youth, was the son of a poor muleteer named
Paolo Fattorino, who saved enough money to buy a
plot of land and a house near the Porta di San Pier
Gattolini, outside the walls of Florence. There his
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