Peter Martyr at
Murano, gave the Florentine monk a commission for a picture of the
value of seventy or 100 ducats. Not having time to paint this during
his stay, he promised to execute it on his return to Florence, and the
vicar paid him in advance twenty-eight ducats in money and colours; the
rest was to be raised by the sale of some MS. letters from S. Catherine
of Siena, which a friend of Father Dalzano near Florence held in
possession.
Fra Bartolommeo, having brought home from the Venetian school a new
impulse for painting, and wishing to diffuse the religious influence of
art more widely, desired to enlarge his atelier and school at San
Marco. His only assistants in the convent were Fra Paolino of Pistoja,
and one or two miniaturists, who were only good at missals. Fra Paolino
(born 1490) took the vows at a very early age, and was removed to
Florence from Prato with Fra Bartolommeo. He was the son of a painter,
Bernardino di Antonio, but though he learned the first principles from
him, his real art was imbibed from the Frate, under whom, together with
Mariotto, he worked for years.
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