With San Marco our story has now to deal, for it is
impossible to write Fra Bartolommeo's life without touching on the
well-known history of Savonarola. The great preacher's influence in
these years, from 1492 to 1497, entered into almost every individual in
Florence, either to draw them to devotion, or to stir them up to the
greatest opposition.
The artists, whose minds were probably the most impressional, were his
fervent adherents. He has been accused of being the ruin of art, but
"this cry has only arisen in our time; the silence of contemporaries,
although not friendly to him, proves that he was not in that century so
accused." [Footnote: Gino Capponi, _Storia delta Republica di
Firenze_, lib. vi. chap. ii.] The only mention of anything of
artistic value is a "tavoliere" [Footnote: A chess or draught board.]
of rich work, spoken of by Burlamacchi and Benivieni, in a "Canzone di
un Piagnone sul bruciamento delle Vanita." Savonarola himself was an
artist and musician in early life, the love of the beautiful was strong
within him, only he would have it go hand in hand with the good and
true.
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