Bartolomeo di Pagholo, born in Savignano di Prato, Tuscany, had received the nickname of Baccio della Porta, for his house was near the Porta ("Gate") San Pier Gattolini.

Starting from 1483 or 1484, by recommendation of Benedetto da Maiano, he had apprenticed in the workshop of Cosimo Rosselli.

He is one of the greatest painters of his time.

In 1490 or 1491 he had begun a collaboration with Mariotto Albertinelli.

In the late 1490s, Baccio had been drawn to the teachings of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who denounces what he views as vain and corrupt contemporary art.

Savonarola has argued for art serving as a direct visual illustration of the Bible to educate those unable to read the book.

From 1498 is his famous portrait of Savonarola, now in the Museo Nazionale di San Marco in Florence.

Savonarola—arrested, tortured, tried, and condemned to death for heresy and schism—is publicly hanged and then burned in the PIAZZA DELLA SIgNORI on May 23, 1498.

Fra Bartolomeo had been commissioned to create a fresco of the Universal Judgment for the Ospedale di Santa Maria Nuova, completed by Albertinelli and Giuliano Bugiardini when Baccio became a Dominican friar on July 26, 1500.

Entering the convent of San Marco the following year, he had renounced painting for several years, not resuming until 1504 when he became the head of the monastery workshop in obedience to his superior.

In this year he begins a Vision of St. Bernard for Bernardo Bianco's family chapel in the Badia Fiorentina, finished in 1507.

Soon thereafter, Raphael visits Florence and befriends the friar.

Bartolomeo learns perspective from the younger artist, while Raphael adds skills in coloring and handling of drapery, which is noticeable in the works he produces after their meeting.

With Raphael, he remains on the friendliest terms, and when he departs from Rome, leaves in his hands two unfinished pictures, which Raphael completes.

Fra Bartolommeo is established as the leading painter in Florence by 1510.

The influential Sandro Botticelli, who has apparently worked little since the 1494 expulsion of the Medici from Florence and seems to have suffered extreme financial hardship, dies at sixty-five on May 17, 1510.

Although Florentine painting began to move rapidly in new directions after 1500, Botticelli’s most gifted pupil, Filippino Lippi, son of his first teacher, had carried his style into the next generation.

Andrea del Sarto's San Filippo Benizzi fresco series, executed in 1510 for the atrium of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, owe their fantastic landscapes to the conservative style of Piero di Cosimo, who has has become known as a painter of charming mythological scenes such as Venus, Mars and Cupid, (now in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany).

The haunting painting variously known as The Death of Procris, A Satyr mourning over a Nymph or simply as A Mythological Subject is an unsigned and undated panel painting in the National Gallery in London, United Kingdom, securely attributed to Piero di Cosimo (who never signs his works).

Its date is uncertain, and its subject has been a matter of dispute.

The name The Death of Procris (Italian: Morte di Procri) has been used since the nineteenth century, and is supposed to have been inspired by Ovid's tale of the death of Procris at the hands of her husband Cephalus, in Metamorphoses VII.

The National Gallery has rejected this title since at least Cecil Gould's catalogue of 1951, since when it has preferred to describe the subject as "A Mythological Subject" or "A Satyr mourning over a Nymph".

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the subject matter, the painting, which shows a satyr mourning over the body of a young woman, has been one of the most popular works by Piero di Cosimo.

Fra Bartolommeo's “The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine,” a large altarpiece painted in 1511 in his monumentalized style, combines faultless technique, complex spatial organization, and subtle use of color.

Bartolommeo’s works typically blend the geometrical compositions developed in the fifteenth century with the classical figural style that he helped to develop from Leonardo's work.

Andrea del Sarto develops new classical interests and makes greater use of sfumato.

He begins in 1511 to paint his grisaille frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo.

Jacopo Sansovino, while in Rome, had attracted the notice of Bramante and Raphael and made a wax model of the Deposition of Christ for Perugino to use.

He returns in 1511 to Florence, where he receives commissions for marble sculptures of St. James for the Duomo and a Bacchus, now in the Bargello.

His “Saint James”, considered the finest of all the statues contributed to that building, derives from Andrea’s “Baptist,” but indicates the influence of both Michelangelo and Raphael.

The figure’s more twisted posture and the heavier, ornamental drapery add High Renaissance overtones.

Andrea del Sarto was born Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco di Luca di Paolo del Migliore in Florence on July 16, 1486.

Since his father, Agnolo, was a tailor (sarto), he became known as "del Sarto" ("tailor's son").

Since 1677 some have attributed the surname Vannucchi with little documentation.

By 1494 Andrea was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and then to a woodcarver and painter named Gian Barile, with whom he remained until 1498.

According to Vasari, he then apprenticed to Piero di Cosimo, and later with Raffaellino del Garbo (Carli).

Andrea and an older friend, Franciabigio, decided in 1508 to open a joint studio at a lodging together in the Piazza del Grano.

The first product of their partnership may have been the Baptism of Christ for the Florentine Compagnia dello Scalzo, the beginning of a monochrome fresco series.

By the time the partnership was dissolved, Sarto's style bore the stamp of individuality.

From 1509 to 1514 the brotherhood of the Servites had employed Sarto, Franciabigio, and Andrea Feltrini in a program of frescoes at Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze.

Sarto completed three frescoes in the portico of the Servite convent illustrating the Life of Filippo Benizzi, a Servite saint who died in 1285.

He executed them rapidly, depicting the saint sharing his cloak with a leper, cursing some gamblers, and restoring a girl possessed with a devil.

These paintings have met with respect, the correctness of the contours being particularly admired, and earned for Sarto the nickname of "Andrea senza errori" (Andrea the perfect).

After these, the painter depicted in two frescoes the death of S. Filippo and then children cured by touching his garment; all five works were completed before the close of 1510.

The Servites engaged him to do two more frescoes in the forecourt of the Annunziata: a Procession of the Magi (or Adoration, containing a self-portrait) finished in 1511.

Towards 1512 he painted an Annunciation in the monastery of S. Gallo and a Marriage of Saint Catherine (Dresden).

Andrea had finished his last two frescoes by 1514, including his masterpiece, the Birth of the Virgin, which fuses the influence of Leonardo, Ghirlandaio and Fra Bartolomeo.

By November 1515 he had finished at the Scalzo the Allegory of Justice and the Baptist preaching in the desert.

Fra Bartolommeo, the foremost painter in Florence after Leonardo da Vinci dies on October 31, 1517.

Andrea del Sarto, who, through his contact with Leonardo, Bartolommeo, Raphael's paintings, contemporary sculpture (especially that of Jacopo Sansovino, with whom he has collaborated), and the prints of Durer, has by now established a style characterized by greater use of sfumato and classical interests.

His popular “Madonna of the Harpies” altarpiece features the classical formal harmony, intense colors, and noble sweetness associated with Sarto’s mature work.

Considered his major contribution to High Renaissance art, it is a depiction of a dark-eyed Madonna and child on a pedestal, flanked by angels and two saints (Saint Bonaventure or Francis and John the Evangelist).

Originally completed in 1517 for the convent of San Francesco dei Macci, the altarpiece now resides in the Uffizi.

The figures have a Leonardo-like aura, with a pyramid shaped composition.

Leonardo’s unfortunate experiment with a new fresco technique in his great Last Supper, painted in the late 1490s for the refectory of the ducal church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, begins to show the first signs of decay in 1517.

For this work, Leonardo had sought a greater detail and luminosity than could be achieved with traditional fresco.

He painted The Last Supper on a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, so it is not a true fresco.

Because a fresco cannot be modified as the artist works, Leonardo instead chose to seal the stone wall with a double layer of dried plaster.

Then, borrowing from panel painting, he added an undercoat of white lead to enhance the brightness of the oil and tempera that was applied on top.

This was a method that had been described previously, by Cennino Cennini in the fourteenth century.

However, Cennini had recommended the use of secco for the final touches alone.

These techniques were important for Leonardo's desire to work slowly on the painting, giving him sufficient time to develop the gradual shading or chiaroscuro that was essential in his style.

Because the painting was on a thin exterior wall, the effects of humidity were felt more keenly, and the paint failed to properly adhere to the wall.

Because of the method used, soon after the painting was completed on February 9, 1498, it began to deteriorate.

As early as 1517, the painting was starting to flake.

Due to the methods used, and a variety of environmental factors, as well as intentional damage, very little of the original painting remains today, despite numerous restoration attempts, the last being completed in 1999.