Marco; in which he combines a
richness of colouring rarely obtained in fresco, with a drawing which
is almost perfect. Fra Niccolo della Magna, who was prior in that year,
and left in 1507 to become Archbishop of Capua, sat for one of the
saints. Contemporory with this may be dated also the figure of the
_Virgin_, painted for Agnolo Doni, now in the Corsini gallery in Rome.
Giovanni de' Medici also gave him a commission.
Meanwhile the _S. Bernard_ was not paid for. Fra Bartolommeo
priced it at 200 ducats, and the convent being the gainer by his works,
took his own valuation. Bernardo offered only eighty ducats; the Frati
were indignant, and called in the Abbot of the Badia as umpire; he
being unable to move Bernardo, retired from office; then a council of
friends was resolved on, in which Mariotto was for the painter, and
Lorenzo de Credi for the purchaser; but this also failed.
It was next proposed to submit the question to the Guild of Druggists
(_arte degli speziali_), which included at that time also doctors
and painters; but the convent, refusing lay judgment, took the offer of
Francesco Magalotti, a relative of Bernardo, who priced it at 100
ducats, and the monks had to be satisfied.
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