Domenico, at Prato, on July 26th, 1500, two years
after first making the resolution. His year of probation over, he took
the final vows and became Fra Bartolommeo.
A document in S. Marco proves that he was possessed of worldly goods
when he entered, [Footnote: Rosini, _Storia della Pittura_, chap
xxvii.] among which were the house of his father in S. Pier Gattolini,
and the podere at Brozzi. Having once given himself up to monasticism,
Fra Bartolommeo would offer no half-service, his brushes were left
behind with all other worldly things, and here closes Baccio della
Porta's first artistic career.
His sun was set only to rise again to greater brilliance in the future
as Fra Bartolommeo, a name famous for ever in the annals of art.
CHAPTER V.
FRA BARTOLOMMEO IN THE CONVENT.
A.D. 1504-1509.
Four years had passed, and the monk had never touched a pencil, but his
mission in art was not fulfilled, and events were working towards that
end, for the spirit of art once awakened could not die either in that
convent or in that age.
His friend, Mariotto, kept him _au courant_ in all the gossip of
art, and told him of the great cartoons of Leonardo and Michelangelo,
which he too went to see.
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