the subject is Our Lady with saints around her.[1] Fra Bartolommeo obtained much commendation for his manner of drawing figures, which he did with such remarkable softness of outline, that he added to the art by this means a great increase of harmony; his figures really aj)pear to be in relief, they are executed in the most animated manner, and finished with the utmost perfection.
Having heard much of the excellent works which Michael Angelo and the graceful Raphael were performing in Rome, and being moved by the praises of these masters, for the Monk was perpetually receiving accounts of the marvels effected by the two divine artists, he finally, having obtained permission of the Prior, repaired to Rome. He was there received and entertained by the Frate del Piombo,[2] Mariano Fetti, for whom he painted two pictures, at the Convent of San Silvestro, on Monte Cavallo, to which Fra Mariano belonged,[3] the subjects SS. Pietro and Paolo.[4] But the labours undertaken by Fra Bartolommeo in the air of Rome, were not so successful as those executed while he breathed that of Florence; among the vast numbers of works, ancient and modern, which he there found in such overwhelming abundance, he felt himself bewildered and astounded; the proficiency in art which he had believed himself to possess, now appeared to him to be greatly diminished,[5] and he de-
- ↑ This picture is still in the church of San Marco, and although not equal in merit to that previously described, is thought to have so much of the manner of Raphael—his second manner that is to say—that, according to Bottari, it was mistaken by Pietro da Cortona for a work of that great painter.
- ↑ Frati del Piombo, Monks of the Signet. This name was given to those persons, whether laymen or churchmen, to whom was confided the office of appending the seals of lead to the pontificial diplomas. Bramante held this appointment, as we have just said in his life, and after the death of the Fra Mariano here alluded to, it was obtained by the painter Sebastiano Luciani, thence called Sebastiano del Piombo, whose life follows.
- ↑ Fra Mariano had been endowed by Pope Julius IL, with extensive powers in all things relating to the buildings of San Silvestro-a-MonteCavailo, after-wards given to the Theatines, and now belonging to the Fathers of the Mission.
- ↑ These paintings are now in that part of the Papal Palace of the Quirinal, which is called the Apartments of the Princes. For engravings of these works, sec the Ape Italiana.
- ↑ The same thing happened, according to Lanzi, to Andrea del Sarto, to II Rosso, and other truly great painters, whose modesty “is strongly con-
