Fra Bartolomeo

After Giorgione and Savoldo. Notes on a Love Portrait, here is the second instalment, the second study-exhibition in the series Brescia: Works from Great Museums – the Rinascimento. We move from Venice to Florence.

We hope to have made an interesting choice in deciding to investigate the figure of Fra’ Bartolomeo and his circle, with the assistance of Serena Padovani and Chris Fischer, leading international scholars in the field.

How did the circulation of pictorial models and composition schemes function in early 16th century Florence? What were the importance and influence of the San Marco workshop and Fra’ Bartolomeo himself? In what way did the close collaboration with his ‘partner’ Mariotto Albertinelli work?

This exhibition – over and above the beauty and importance of the works themselves (the Adoration of the Child, or “Mond” Holy Family, a masterpiece by Fra’ Bartolomeo from the London National Gallery, is on loan for the occasion), is a chance to reflect on these matters, and to throw some light on a painter and an environment which – although they were central to the great story of the Florence Renaissance – are not well known to the general public.

Fra’ Bartolomeo, especially in his youth, looked to Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi and above all Leonardo da Vinci as models; at thirty years old he became friends with Raphael; in 1508 he went to Venice and brought himself up to date on the innovations of Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione; at forty he made a journey to Rome, where the sight of works by Michelangelo and Raphael in the Vatican perhaps threw him into turmoil, or at least made him feel the weight of a comparison that was increasingly problematic.

But what was Fra’ Bartolomeo like, this singular painter-friar, born Baccio della Porta? Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550), described him thus: “Baccio was beloved in Florence for his virtues, for he was assiduous in his work, quiet and good by nature, and a truly God-fearing man; he had a great liking for a life of peace, and he shunned vicious company, delighted much in hearing sermons, and always sought the society of learned and serious persons”.

Quiet, calm and humble; uncompetitive, we might say today. But one of the main protagonists of the golden age that was the Florentine Renaissance. He, who had once looked to others as models, came to exert a long-lasting influence; his was a powerful and original voice, notwithstanding his solemnity, gentleness and composure.

Given that our interest is centred on the work for the Tosio Martinengo Gallery – the new Tosio Martinengo Gallery, the exhibition and catalogue are also an occasion to present to the public, after careful restoration (conducted by Gian Maria and Alberto Casella), detailed reflectographic investigations (performed by Vincenzo Gheroldi) and lengthy art-historical research (carried out mostly by Odette D’Albo), a painting – the Adoration of the Child – which Paolo Tosio bought in 1819 as a work by the hand of Fra’ Bartolomeo, but the originality of which was questioned from the mid-19th century onwards, to the point that it came to be considered a neoclassical copy. But indications from the specialist committee for the General Catalogue of the Tosio Martinengo Gallery, together with a valuable suggestion from Giovanni Agosti, have opened up a different avenue. And today, at last, we can finally reposition the work at the beginning of the 16th century: it is a painting of high quality, most probably produced by the San Marco workshop following the success of Fra’ Bartolomeo’s Adoration now in the National Gallery.

In order to make known such ‘discoveries’ which are the result of work hidden from the public eye, carried out quietly by those who work routinely in museums and universities, exhibitions are needed.

There is, as always, the accompanying exposition Art Unveiled, which presents a selection of paintings from the Tosio Martinengo Gallery that recent research and restoration work have revealed to be of particular interest, as well as a series of notable events, such as our art history course open to the public.