Vincenzo Foppa of Brescia, founder of the Lombard school, his life ...

62 VINCENZO FOPPA
the Church have always been traditionally assigned to Vincenzo Vecchio, i.e.
Foppa, because in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they were the
only portions of the frescoes which had not been whitewashed ;
the remainder
having been covered up after the plague of 1630. They were therefore the
only paintings to which Bugati's words could have been applied by writers of
a subsequent epoch.' Art criticism has been completely baffled by these
frescoes and knowledge respecting their authorship has not advanced in
slightest degree since the time when their surface was first freed from whitewash.
In the main, Lombard elements predominate, and in the Fathers of the
Church there is a decided connection with Foppa ;
yet there is little which
affords any definite clue, and in this case it must be admitted that the discovery
of a document relating to the work would be of inestimable value."
The first composition which strikes the eye on entering the building, on the
arch above the inner chapel containing the altar, is the Annunciation. Portinari,
we might conjecture, would have given prominence to this subject in the
scheme of decoration, partly because of his particular reverence, as a Florentine,
for the Virgin of the Annunciation, and partly, perhaps, in order to
please Francesco and Bianca Maria Sforza, who, as we saw, had placed the
hospital under the especial protection of the Santissima Annunziata. Hence
it might have been supposed that the execution of the fresco would have been
entrusted to Foppa himself. There is little, however, which would justify the
attribution of this painting to the master ; the figures of both the Madonna
1 When Lomazzo's annotator wrote in 1844, the frescoes were still under whitewash
(II, p. 133), but apparently the Four Fathers had never been covered up, for Bianconi,
writing in 1787, saw them and speaks of them as by "V. Civerchio detto il Vecchio"
(p. 217). The paintings existing in the chapel in his day were two large canvases by
Storer and Gherardini, and a ceiling painting by Ercole Procaccini, all of which have
perished. In 187 1 the restoration of the chapel was begun, the frescoes being freed
from whitewash by the painter Agostino Caironi (see Mongeri, op. cit., pp. 61, 62, and
P. Rotta, Cronaca . . . dei Ristauri . . . nella Basilica di S. Eiistorgio, etc.).
^
The subjects of the frescoes are as follows :—On entering the chapel we have on the
right: (i) The Devil appearing to the Cathari in the form of the Madonna and encouraging
them to persevere in their heresy ; St. Peter Martyr forces him to show himself
in his true form {Acta Sanctorum, April 29, pp. 686, 687). (2) The Saint preaching
in the open air ; the miracle of the cloud, an incident also depicted in one of
the reliefs on the tomb of the Saint, is represented ; according to the legend, at the word
of the preacher a cloud gathered and shielded the faithful from the sun throughout the
sermon. On the left :
(3) The legend of the young man who kicked his mother and
was so moved by a sermon of the Saint that he cut off his foot ; the Saint at the prayer
of the mother restores the limb. (4) The death of the Saint in the wood of Farga, near
Barlassina, between Como and Milan. Opposite the entrance :
(5) The Annunciation ;
and above, the Eternal Father in a glory of cherubim with groups of angels on either
side ; the small busts in medallions below this composition and on either side of the
the