Fiori in Urbino, he studied with his uncle,
Bartolomeo Genga. Barocci moved to
Rome in his twenties and, while training
with a minor painter named Taddeo Zuc-
caro, came under the influence of Raphael.
Barocci also studied the works of Correg-
gio, who used warm colors in a graceful,
flowing design. In Rome Barocci learned
the demanding skill of copper engraving
and also became a portraitist and fresco
painter. In Rome he was commissioned to
paint frescoes at the Vatican and also com-
pleted aLast Supperin the church of Santa
Maria Sopra Minerva. While decorating a
ceiling at the Vatican for Pope Pius IV,
however, he came down with a case of
food poisoning that he feared was a delib-
erate attack by jealous rivals.
Soon afterward Barocci retreated to
Urbino, where for the rest of his life he re-
mained under the protection and patron-
age of the Duke of Urbino, Francesco Della
Rovere, for whom Barocci did a striking
portrait. Barocci was an extremely slow
and methodical painter, but his works
show soft lights, a confident ability to draw
and position figures, a full range of colors
and an ingenious use of light, much in
contrast to the darker and more somber
works of many of his contemporaries, in-
cluding the more widely acclaimed Mich-
elangelo da Caravaggio. Among art histo-
rians, Barocci is known as much for his
sketches and drawings as for his paintings,
as the studies and cartoons he completed
before putting his brush to canvas are as
skillfully performed as his full-scale com-
pleted works. For his sketches, Barocci
used the new medium of colored pastel,
which has remained a favorite method of
modern painters.
Devoted to the cause of the Catholic
Church, Barocci was an ardent supporter
of the Counter-Reformation, which was
an attempt by the church to return Protes-
tant lands to Catholic control. He became
a member of the Capuchin religious order
and completed two major altarpieces for
the mystic preacher Saint Philip Neri:The
VisitationandThe Presentation of the Vir-
gin. Barocci’sMartyrdom of St. Vitalebe-
came a strong influence on Baroque paint-
ers of Italy and northern Europe in the
age following his death.SEEALSO: Correggio; Michelangelo
Buonarroti; RaphaelBartolommeo, Fra .............................
(1472–1517)
Artist born in Savignano di Prato, near
Florence in Tuscany. Showing talent as a
boy, Bartolommeo was apprenticed to the
workshop of Cosimo Rosselli, where his
first works were influenced by Piero di Co-
simo, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Fra Fil-
ippo Lippi. He also made an intense study
of the works of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1498
he created a famous portrait of Girolamo
Savonarola, the Dominican friar who de-
nounced in his sermons what he pro-
claimed to be the vain and degenerate
works of Florentine artists. Bartolommeo
took Savonarola’s sermons to heart and
brought many of his own works to the
bonfires where books, art, and sculptures
were destroyed. He joined the Dominican
order in 1500, and became a monk in the
convent of San Marco in Florence. He gave
up painting until 1504, when his superior
ordered him to run the monastery’s work-
shop. Under the instruction of Raphael, he
studied the use of perspective and color.
He completed altarpieces for cathedrals in
Lucca and Florence, Italy, and Besancon,
France. In 1513 he moved to Rome,
paintedPeter and PaulandSt. Mark Evan-
gelist, considered by many to be his finestBartolommeo, Fra