the time when Savonarola went to Florence to preach against the sinfulness of the city. Bartolomeo became the earnest friend of the preacher, and was so carried away by his influence that he burned all his studies and drawings of profane subjects, and those which repre- sented nude figures. He abandoned his art, and spent his time in the society of the enthusiast. When, at length, Savonarola was seized, tortured, and burned, Bartolomeo took the vows of a Dominican friar, and left his unfinished pictures to be completed by Albertinelli. During four years he led a most austere life, never touching his pencil. His superior finally commanded his practice of the art, and he resumed it with languor and entire want of interest. About this time Raffaelle arrived in Florence. He was then but twenty-one years old, yet was already noted as a great painter. He vis- ited the friar's cell, and the consequence was a deep friendship between the two, to which the world owes the afterworks of Fra Bartolomeo. Raffaelle instructed his monastic friend in perspective, and he in turn gave new ideas of drapery to Raffaelle. Fra Bartolomeo was the first to employ lay figures in the study of drapery ; he also imparted to Raffaelle his mode of coloring. The examination of the works of these painters will prove that from this time both of them produced more excel- lent pictures than they had done before ; the friar had caught an intellectual grace from his young friend, and Raffaelle had advanced in color and drapery. About 1508 Fra Bartolomeo was allowed to go to Venice, where his coloring was greatly improved, and in 1513 he went to Rome. This visit was doubtless a deep joy to him, but the beauties of what he saw so far exceeded his imaginations that he seems to have been stupefied; he made no attempt to equal or excel the artists about him, and only commenced two figures of SS. Peter and Paul, which Raffaelle finished after his return to Flor- ence. When once more in his convent, Bartolomeo showed the benefit he hail received, and executed some of his most important works, among which are a Mar- riage of St. Catharine, now hanging in the Louvre, and the unfinished Conception of the Uffizi. But it is in his later days, when his mind had broadened and strength- ened and his touch grown firm, that we find such mas- terpieces as the Pieta of the Pitti — the most purely beautiful Pieta ever painted ; The Presentation in the Temple, at Vienna; and The Madonna della Miseri- cordia, now at Lucca, and considered by many as his most important work. It had been said that he could do nothing grand : he now painted the St. Mark, which is in the Pitti Palace, and is so simply grand as to be compared to the remains of Grecian art. He lived only four years after going to Rome, and died at a time when his powers seemed daily increasing. His character was impressed on all h.is works. When Savonarola was seized, Porta hid himself, and vowed that if he escaped he would become a monk. This want of courage and energy in his nature we must admit; but he was enthu- siastic, devout, and loving. His saints and virgins are tender, mild, and full of sweet dignity, and if we char- acterized his pictures in one word, holiness is what we should use, for it is that which they most express. His boy-angels were beautifully painted, and his representa- tions of architecture were rich and grand. His works are rare. The Louvre has two of his pictures, and the Berlin Museum one ; but he is best studied in Florence, where the larger number of his works remain. See Mrs. Clement, Handbook of Painters, Sculptois, etc., s. v. ; Meehan, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, etc., of the Ordt r if St. Dominic (Dublin, 1852, 2 vols. 12mo), vol. ii, ch. i— viii ; Radcliffe, Schools and Masters of Painting (N. Y. 1877), p. 120 sq., et al.; Schlegel. ^Esthetic and Miscellaneous Notes, p. 7 sq. ; Taine, Travels in Italy (Florence and Venice), p. 158 sq. (J. H. W.)
Porta, Conrad, a Lutheran divine, was born in 1541 at ( tster\vick,near Halberstadt. Having completed his studies, he was called in 1566 as rector to Osterwick. In 1567 he went as conrector to Eisleben; in 1569 he
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was made- deacon <>f St Nicolai; in 1575, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul and assessor of the consistory, at the same time supplying the spiritual wants of the Church of the Holy Ghosl and lecturing at the Gymnasium. When in 1572 the Flacian controversy took place, lie sided with the Eisleben theologians against Spangen- berg. Porta died in L585. He wrote, Pastoral* Lu- theri (Eisleben, 1582); Oratio •'< assidua lectioru utheri (ibid.), etc. Nee Winer. Handbuch il< r theolog. Literatur, ii. '-".•: Jocher, Gekhrten-Lexikon, b. v. (B.P.)
Porta, Egidio di, a Roman Catholic monastic, flourished in the period ofthe greal Reformation move- ment of the 10th century. He had early taken the black cowl oi the Augustinians, moved thereto, as he himself tells us. "under the impulse of a certain relig- ing, but not according to knowledge." For seven years he discharged the office of a preacher of the Word of God in dee], ignorance; then, enlightened by the writings ofthe Swiss reformer Zw ingli, which Prov- idence had thrown in his way. he imparted the knowl- edge of the truth to his brethren of the sam< tvent.