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

64 VINCENZO FOPPA
when the Chapel of St. Peter Martyr was still in the builder's hands, that
Foppa, on the initiative of Portinari, may have gone to Padua in order to
study the scheme of decoration in the Eremitani Chapel, which already at that
date must have ranked high in the estimation of Italian artists, and between
which and the Portinari Chapel there is undoubtedly a close connection. It
is clear, as we have seen from the testimony of Foppa's early works, that the
teaching of Squarcione had no part in his development ; but it is extremely
probable that the genius of Mantegna and the virile and striking quality of his
art would have attracted Vincenzo. From the scheme of the Eremitani Chapel
at Padua, the Brescian master perhaps adapted what seemed to him most suitable
for the decoration of the Chapel of St. Peter Martyr, though there is no
question of plagiarism or direct imitation.
The stern severity and seizing qualities of the Eremitani " Fathers" would
have been out of place amid the cheerful surroundings of the Portinari Chapel.
The saints here, so admirably set in the deep perspective of the medallions
and looking benignly down upon the scene below, strike a note altogether in
harmony with the pictorial design and decorative scheme of the whole. The
St. Ambrose in type and life-like expression and in every particular of line
and form seems so closely connected with Foppa that we hold the traditional
attribution to "Vincenzo Vecchio " to be well founded; and in the SS.
Augustine and Gregory the modelling and expression of the heads, so far
can be judged from the floor of the chapel, the form of the hands, and the
character of the drapery, seem also in the main, to justify the ascription ; but
the fourth figure, of St. Jerome, is manifestly inferior to the other three.
Of the busts of the apostles above the drum it is impossible to speak,
owing to the great distance from the eye and the absence of any adequate
reproduction of these compositions, but in general character some at least
appear to be nearly related to the manner of Foppa.^
A master of great individuality was the painter who produced the admirably
composed frescoes of the Preaching, Miracles, and Death of the Saint
on either side of the two windows ; an artist who shows considerable power of
characterization in his treatment of heads." The background of the wood of
Farga in the scene of the martyrdom is a very attractive composition, but
is so remarkably modern in feeling, in the touch of the trees and in the treat-
as
^
Monger! pronounced these figures to be by the same hand as the Four Fathers of
the Church ; as he wrote in 1872 when the restoration was being carried out, it is
possible that he may have had the advantage of examining these heads at close quarters
from the scaffolding.
'
This is seen in the Preaching and in the two Miracles ; in the Death of the Saint,
on the other hand, the drawing of the figures and treatment of the heads is remarkably
poor ; the head of St. Peter Martyr's assailant, indeed, appears to be quite modernized.