Fra Bartolommeo

Happy Birthday Fra Bartolommeo!! Born today in Florence, Italy, in 1472, this painter studied with Cosimo Rosselli and is said to have been an influence on Raphael. After witnessing a mob scene horror when Savonarola was drug from his convent to prison and then death, Bartolommeo became a monk. From 1500 he practiced his art from the confines of the convent, S Marco. He directed the workshop beginning in 1504, and traveling to Rome and Venice to witness art developments, thus was a major influence in the change in art from the late 15th to the 16th century. He favored a more impressive and generalistic approach to the previous agitated movement and contemporary costume of the 15th century. Fra Bartolommeo is an artist whose religion definitely played a role in the development and creation of his work. I am including a portrait of the monk Girolamo Savonarola, whose life and ultimately death, so influenced Bartolommeo.