Fra Bartolommeo

1475-1517. Italian painter. A student of Cosimo Rosselli, he was later converted under Savonarola,* took orders in 1501, and joined the Dominican monastery of San Marco. For a time he abandoned the practice of painting, but resumed in 1504. By 1509 he assumed the leading role in the contemporary school of painting in Florence. He became the master of a shop that was the principal source of supply in the city of major church altar pieces. His mature paintings are grave and noble, an effect achieved more from impressiveness of structure than from any exposition of human content. His works include Assumption of the Virgin, St. Catherine of Siena and the Magdalene, and the Marriage of St. Catherine.