Albertinelli, Mariotto, 1474-1515; Bartolomeo, fra, 1472-1517; Sarto, Andrea del, 1486-1530
While Fra Bartolommeo had been ailing, Albertinelli had also paid his
visit to the great city, and seen the two great rivals there. He went
from Viterbo, where he had been to finish colouring a work of the
Frate's left unfinished, and also to paint some frescoes in the convent
of La Quercia, near that town. Being so near Borne, he was seized with a
great desire to see it, and left his picture for that purpose. Probably
Fra Bartolommeo had given him an introduction to his friend and
patron, for Fra Mariano Fetti gave Albertinelli a commission to paint a
_Marriage of S. Catherine_ for his church, which he completed, and then
left Rome at once. Nothing is known of the impressions made on him by
the works of the two great masters, and unfortunately his death occurred
too soon after for his own style to have given any evidence of their
influence.
A Giostra, at Viterbo, proved a very strong attraction to his
pleasure-loving mind. This "Giostra," which the translators of Vasari
seem to find so "obscure," [Footnote: Vasari's _Lives_, vol. ii. p.
470.] was no doubt one of those festivals revived by the Medici, in
which mounted cavaliers ride with a lance at a suspended Saracen's head,
striking it at full gallop. Desirous of appearing to advantage before
the eyes of her whom he had elected his queen, he forgot his mature age,
and rushed into the jousts with all the energies of a youth, but alas!
fell ill from over-exertion. Fearing the malarious air was not good
for him, he had a litter made, and was taken to Florence, where Fra
Bartolommeo placed himself at his bedside, soothing his last moments,
and leading him as far heavenward as he could. When Albertinelli died,
on the 5th of November, 1515, his friend followed him to an honourable
interment in S. Piero Maggiore.
After Albertinelli's death, the Frate soared to greater heights of
genius than before.
The year 1516 marks the birth of his grandest masterpieces, first the
picture in the Pitti Palace called by Cavalcaselle a _Resurrection_, but
which is more truly an allegorical impersonation of the Saviour. It was
ordered by a rich merchant, Salvadore Billi, to place in a chapel
which Pietro Roselli had adorned with marbles in the church of the
"Annunciata." He paid 100 ducats in gold for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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