BARTOLOMMEO DI PAGHOLO, FRA the Italian historical and portrait painter—known also as BACCio (short for Bartolommeo) DELLA PORTA (because he lived near the Porta Romana), was born in Soffignano, near Florence, and died in Florence on Oct. 31, 1517. He was a pupil of Cosimo Roselli, and was a close student of the works of Leonardo da Vinci. Of his early productions, the most important is the fresco of the Last Judgment, in which he was assisted by his friend Mariotto Albertinelli. He came under the influence of Savonarola, and was so affected by his death that he soon after entered the Dominican convent and for some years gave up his art. He had not long resumed it, in obedience to his superior, when Raphael came to Florence and formed a close friendship with him. Barto lommeo learned from the younger artist the rules of perspective, while Raphael owes to the frate the improvement in his colouring and handling of drapery. Some years afterwards he visited Rome, and was struck with a feeling of his own inferiority when he contemplated the masterpieces of Michelangelo and Raphael. On his return he painted the magnificent figure of St. Mark (his masterpiece, at Florence) and the undraped figure of St. Sebastian. He painted a profile portrait of his friend Savonarola in the char acter of St. Peter Martyr. The majority of Bartolommeo's compositions are altar-pieces. The best collection of his works is in the Pitti Palace, Florence. The Louvre possesses an "Annuncia tion" and a "Virgin in Glory," and there are examples in the National Gallery, at Panshanger, and in Berlin and elsewhere.
See F. Knapp, Fra Bartolommeo and die Schule von San Marco (Halle, i9o3) ; H. von der Gabelentz, Fra Bartolommeo and die Florentiner Renaissance (Leipzig, 1922).