BARTOLOMMEO, Pra, or BACCIO DELLA PORTA, Florentine painter: b. Savignano 1469; d. Florence 1517. He learned in Florence the first principles of painting from Cosimo Roselli and acquired a more perfect knowledge of art by studying the works of Leonardo da Vinci. The most im portant of his early prOductions is the fresco of the Last Judgment, in which he was assisted by his friend Albertinelli. He was an admirer and follower of Savonarola, on whose death, in consequence of a vow made during the peril of persecution, he took the Dominican habit in 1500 and assumed the name of Fra Bartolom meo. For the space of four years he did not touch a pencil and employed it aftertvard only on devotional subjects. Raphael visited Flor ence in 1504 and gave instructions to Bartol ornmeo in perspective, receiving in return his lessons in coloring and handling of drapery. Some years afterward the latter visited Michel angelo and Ftaphael at Rome. After his re turn to Florence he executed several religious pictures, among which were a Saint Mark and Saint Sebastian, which are greatly admired. His style is severe and elevated, but very graceful in youthful figures; his coloring, in vigor and brilliancy, comes near to that of Titian and Giorgione. But he particularly ex
cels in drapery, which none before him repre sented with equal truth, fulness and ease. Many of his drawings survive in the print col lections of the Uffizi, Louvre, Munich, British Museum and Weimar Museum. Among his paintings excellent examples are 'Christ at Errunaus) (1507) in San Marco; (Madonna with Saints John and Stephen' (1509) and (Saints Mary Magdalen and Catherine' (1509), both in Lucca Cathedral. Others are (The Madonna and Six Saints' (1509) in San Mar co, Florence; (The Betrothal of Saint Cather hie' (1511) in the Louvre; della Misericorciia' (1515) at Lucca; (Salvator Mundi,' 'Pieta,' and the famous (Saint Mark,) all in the Pitti Palace. Consult Jameson, (Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters' (1887); Symonds, Renaissance in Italy' (1885) ; Radcliffe, and Masters of Painting' (1898) Cartwright, 'The Painters of Florence' (1901). Consult also the biog raphies of Frantz (Regensburg 1879), Gruyer (Paris 1886), Knapp (Halle 1903). and Scott (London 1881).