Bartolommeo di Paolo del Fattorino, known as Baccio (a version of Bartolommeo) della Porta, ?1472-1517, Florentine painter, became a Dominican when his close friend Savonarola was executed in 1498. He gave up painting for a time, but in 1504 became head of the workshop at the San Marco in Florence, a post that had been held by Fra Angelico. Like Angelico he had a good personal reputation:
Baccio was loved in Florence for his ability; was an assiduous workman, quiet, good-natured and God-fearing. He preferred a quiet life and avoided vicious pleasures, was very fond of sermons, and always sought the society of learned and staid people. ( Vasari, Le Vite, Testo IV.81, Life of Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco)
Vasari claims that when Raphael came to Florence he taught the principles of perspective to Fra Bartolommeo, and sought to learn from Fra Bartolommeo his skill in the use of colour.
Mrs. Jameson refers to his 'tender, serious and deeply religious feeling', and 'mingled seriousness and solemnity' ( Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London, page 244.).
Ruskin in a letter to his father on 6 May 1845 (copied at Works, 4.xxix) describes Bartolommeo's God the Father with Mary Magdalene and St. Catherine of Siena, a picture which Ruskin at Works, 4.347 says is 'of no original power (none of Fra Bartolomeo's are)', but' sums the principles of great Italian religious art in its finest period', and so is 'extremely dear to him'.