Fra Bartolomeo “Prophet Isaiah” and “Prophet Job” at the Accademia Gallery in Florence Italy

Baccio della Porta called Fra Bartolomeo (28 March 1472 - 6 October 1517)
Painting - Oil on wood (200 x 140 cm) 1514-1516

Fra Bartolomeo, Prophet Isaiah, at the Accademia Gallery in Florence Italy

Prophet Isaiah “The Prophet Isaiah” and “The Prophet Job” reflect the meditations of Fra Bartolomeo after his trip to Rome and the influence that Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel had on him.

It was a Florentine merchant named Salvatore Billi who commissioned Fra Bartolomeo these works for the personal chapel of Billi in the church of Annunziata.

The subject of this commission to Baccio della Porta, the civil name of Fra Bartolomeo, was the “Saviour of the World” as a direct reference to the name of the donor, Salvatore.

It was about representing Christ with the four evangelists and, above Christ, Job and Isaiah prophets.

Through this superposition, the intention was to show the union of the Old and New Testament through Jesus Christ.

The paintings of the two prophets, Job and Isaiah, are the ones you can admire today at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, while the others are exhibited at the Palatina Gallery of Palazzo Pitti.

Michelangelo's influence is evident here when we see that Fra Bartolomeo painted her two seated and life-size prophets, each painting measuring two metres high.

Fra Bartolomeo “The Prophet Job”

Fra Bartolomeo, Prophet Job, at the Accademia Gallery in Florence Italy

Prophet Job In Fra Bartolomeo's painting, Job is an elderly man wearing a long beard; his two barefoot are placed on the pedestal where his name is engraved.

He wears a short blue cape that covers his head and descends to the bottom of his back.

Job, whose gaze fixes us with intensity, holds a long strip of parchment in his hands on which we can read: “IPSE ERIT SALVADOR MEUS”, “The One Who Will Save Me”.

Recall that Job was an integral and pious man and the most powerful and most prosperous man in the East, hence the will of Fra Bartolomeo to represent him old and looks severe.

Job is one of the heathen saints of the Old Testament who were not canonized.

Fra Bartolomeo “The Prophet Isaiah”

The prophet Isaiah, unlike Job, is a young man with a dynamic attitude, an arm in the air and his index finger pointed while his bust is twisting to the bottom of his body which shows us one of his feet on the pedestal while the other is on the ground.

Prophet Isaiah Like Job, Isaiah is depicted with a short red and blue cape, colours identical to those found on her headdress.

He has a stone tablet engraved with the words: “ECCE DEUS SALVATOR MEUS” “Behold God Who Will Save Me” is almost the same text as that of the parchment held by Job.

Isaiah was a fearless, generous, ardent and unshakeable man.

He was a noble family and perhaps even royal blood.

He was the prophet of four kings of Judas: Uzziah, Yotam, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, whose life he would have extended by “bringing back the shadow of the Sun.”

Isaiah's religious vocation came to him during a vision he had in the Temple in which the Lord appeared to him on a high throne while his mantle filled the Temple.

Prophet Isaiah

Prophet Job