Fra Bartolomeo

Italian Renaissance painter (1472-1517)

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Lived 1472–1517, aged 45

Wikipedia
43 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1472–1517
Aged 45

Summary

Updated 2026-06-11

He gave up painting for years after falling under the spell of Savonarola, then came back and helped shape the High Renaissance — his 1504 Vision of St Bernard hit the young Raphael "with the force of revelation."

Biography

About

Born Baccio della Porta in 1472, he trained with Cosimo Rosselli and spent his early career in Florence. In the 1490s Savonarola's preaching gripped him so completely that he became a Dominican friar in 1500 and renounced his brushes. Four years later his order told him to paint again, and he emerged with an idealized style of static, graceful figures—Virgin and Child with Saints, drapery moving with what one account calls "seraphic grace." He and Raphael became friends and traded influence. His portrait of Savonarola remains the reformer's defining image. He worked in oils and fresco, and his…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Fra Bartolomeo

Fra Bartolomeo

saidundated

To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live for a hundred years like a jackal.

— As quoted in Encyclopedia of Asian History (1988) Vol. 4, p. 104

Fra Bartolomeo

saidundated

Who are my people? All of them – Yes those that ring the temple bells and those that pray in the mosque – they are my people and this land is theirs and mine

— Attributed to Tipu Sultan in The Religious Legacy of Tipu Sultan, IOSR Journal Volume 23, Issue 4 and in the historical novel The Sword of

Fra Bartolomeo

saidundated

To begin the so much desired work of the conversion of the Hindoos and to seize on the Brahmins, ...

— Frenz M. From contact to conquest contact 2003, in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857. 66

Fra Bartolomeo

saidundated

Oh! Almighty God! Dispose the whole body of infidels! Scatter their tribe, cause their feet to stagger! Overthrow their councils! Change their State! Destroy their very root!

— Stone inscription in the palace of Tipu Sultan. quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

Fra Bartolomeo

saidundated

In the hills the unbelievers of the land of the enemy have forbidden fasting and prayer; convert them all to Islam, so that the religion of Thy messenger may gain in strength.

— From Tipu Sultan's dream journal. quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

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