The age of Savonarola: the great Fra' Bartolomeo stars in a dedicated audiobook

An audiobook produced by Finestre sull’Arte and entirely dedicated to Fra’ Bartolomeo (Florence, 1473 - 1517), the great Florentine painter of the early 16th century, is released: Born Bartolomeo di Domenico di Paolo, known as “Baccio della Porta” (“Baccio” is diminutive of Bartolomeo, “della Porta” because the family lived near the Porta Romana in Florence), he soon began painting, becoming a pupil first of Cosimo Rosselli and then of Verrocchio, and then opened his own workshop with his friend Mariotto Albertinelli.

Fra’ Bartolomeo gave us some of the greatest paintings of 16th-century Florence: the extraordinary Last Judgment at St. Mark’s, the marvelous Vision of St. Bernard at the Uffizi, the imperious St. Mark at the Pitti Palace. An artist profoundly marked by the mystical climate that was established in Florence in theage of Savonarola, Bartolomeo took his vows and became a friar himself: he worked in the very convent of San Marco, the same convent that hosted Savonarola. And perhaps Friar Bartholomew’s most famous work is precisely the portrait of Girolamo Savonarola now preserved at the Museum of San Marco in Florence.

The 43-minute audiobook introduces the listener to all these aspects: insights into Friar Bartholomew’s biography, his works, the cultural climate, and the political and social context. The audience will be able to take a real journey through the Florence of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, traveling through museums on an itinerary that will lead them to discover Fra’ Bartolomeo’s greatest works. The volume, simply titled Fra’ Bartolomeo, can be purchased at the price of 4.50 euros, or together with the other ten volumes of the series The Sixteenth Century in Florence at a discounted price (29.90 euros instead of 49.50): to purchase the series just go to the online shop of Finestre sull’Arte.

The following is the description on the audiobook cover: “The artistic talent of Baccio della Porta, who later became Friar Bartholomew, was born and developed in the age of Savonarola, and the young Baccio, caught up in the climate of heated mysticism that affected Florence at the end of the fifteenth century, decided to take his vows and become a monk. His is an artistic figure of considerable importance: a leading painter of the mature Renaissance, classicist and refined, he proposed a constantly evolving art, capable of always taking new cues and then constituting a model for many artists of his generation and those that followed, such as Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, and Rosso Fiorentino, as well as his direct pupils such as Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, and Fra’ Paolino da Pistoia. His art initially looked to the painters of the Florentine Quattrocento and then arrived at a monumentality capable of incorporating the innovations introduced by Michelangelo. Today, Fra’ Bartolomeo is considered one of the most important artists of the early 16th century.”

Pictured: Fra’ Bartolomeo, Vision of Saint Bernard (1504; oil on panel, 215 x 213 cm; Florence, Uffizi)

The age of Savonarola: the great Fra' Bartolomeo stars in a dedicated audiobook

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