Bartolommeo di Paolo del Fattorino, known as Fra Bartolommeo (also as Baccio della Porta), was one of the leading Florentine painters of the early 16th century.
He was trained, according to Vasari, by Cosimo Rosselli. He came under the spiritual influence of Savonarola in the 1490s and entered the friary of San Domenico at Prato as a novice in 1500. After taking religious vows he returned to Florence and resumed painting in 1504.
He was in Venice in 1508 and later in Rome, according to Vasari. He was deeply influenced by Leonardo and Raphael, especially in his altarpieces. His work is imbued with a mood of pietism, not unlike that of Fra Angelico in the preceding century. Following Leonardo, Fra Bartolommeo was a pioneer in the study of landscape, leaving many drawings that record the appearance of the Tuscan countryside.
At different periods he worked in collaboration with Mariotto Albertinelli (1474-1515).
