By Anne Leader
Baccio della Porta, known as Fra Bartolommeo, was born on 28 March 1472 in Florence. Recognized by Giorgio Vasari as a key player in the development of the High Renaissance style, Fra Bartolommeo was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci and several Venetian painters.
Trained in the workshop of Cosimo Rosselli and Piero di Cosimo, Fra Bartolommeo, like his mentors, added oil to his tempera to achieve rich tones and great subtleties of light and shadow. It was in Rosselli’s workshop that he met Mariotto Albertinelli, with whom he formed a partnership. Baccio entered the convent of San Domenico in Prato on 26 July 1500 and professed as a friar a year later with the name Fra Bartolommeo. He eventually moved to the Florentine convent of San Marco and remained there until his death in 1517.
Reference: Ludovico Borgo and Margot Borgo. “Bartolommeo, Fra.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
Vision of Saint Bernard. 1504. Florence: Galleria degli Uffizi.
Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels. ca. 1510-13, black chalk, with traces of white chalk, Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 85.GB.288
Noli Me Tangere, c. 1506, oil on wood, Paris: Musée du Louvre.