Mariotto left Fra Bartolommeo's house in S. Pier Gattolini, and took a room in Gualfonda--now Via Val Fonda--a street leading towards the fortress, built by the Grand Duke Cosimo on the north of the city; and here in time quite a school grew up under his tuition. Giuliano Bugiardini was his head assistant rather than pupil; Francia Bigio, then a boy, Visino, who afterwards went to Hungary, and Innocenzio da Nicola, besides Piero, Baccio's brother, were all scholars. Albertinelli's Bottega in Val Fonda gave some noble paintings to the world, works independently his own, though Fra Bartolommeo's influence is traceable in most of them. The finest of these is the _Salutation_, dated 1503--ordered for the Church of S. Martino, and now the gem of the hall of the Old Masters in the Uffizi Gallery--a work which alone has been able to mark him for all time as a great master. So simple is the subject, and yet so grand the proportions, and in the figures there is such majesty of maternity and dignity of womanhood! A decorated portico, with the heavens behind it, forms the background to the two noble women, in one of whom is expressed the gracious sympathy of an elder matron with the awful, mysterious joy of the younger. The colouring, perfectly harmonised, is the most masterly blending of a subdued tone with soft yet brilliant and shows a deep study of the method of Leonardo. The predella has an _Annunciation_, _Nativity_, and _Circumcision_; all showing the same able style, but more injured by time than the picture. Another charming painting of this period is the _Nativity_ at the Pitti, a round, on panel. The _Madonna_ is not quite so noble as that of the _Salutation_, but the limbs of the child are beautifully rounded. There is a pretty group of three angels singing in the sky; the landscape is as minute in detail as those his old fellow-pupil Piero used to paint in Cosimo's studio.