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

1
Chap. III. THE PORTINARI CHAPEL 65
ment of the foreground, that in its present state it can scarcely be ascribed to
1468; much of it must be due to the epoch of restoration. In the two Miracles
and in the Sermon of the Saint the types are so distinctive that it seems strange
no art historian should thus far have succeeded in piercing the obscurity which
shrouds the personality of the artist and in assigning to him his proper place
in
relation to Lombard art.*
In the Preaching of the Saint the painter gives us a scene which he doubtless
witnessed himself ; for the preaching of the Beato Rocco Porzi at Pavia"''
and elsewhere, of S. Giovanni da Capistrano at Brescia,^ and of many more of
great renown in
the second half of the fifteenth century, drew such vast throngs
of eager listeners that the pulpits from which the preachers discoursed with
extraordinary eloquence had to be set up in the largest open spaces of the
city.
Here and there in these frescoes we are reminded of Foppa,'' but in the
main they differ considerably from any other works of his known to us, and
among all the figures of the four principal compositions (those, namely, relating
to St. Peter Martyr) we have failed to find any of his well-known and
characteristic types. Yet we must remember that none of the extensive and
numerous cycles of wall paintings executed by the master have been preserved,
and it must also be taken into account that a wide gulf separates works of this
description from easel pictures and altarpieces, and that panel pictures are no
criterion of the manner and capacity of a master in fresco painting ;
under the
circumstances, therefore, no definite judgment is possible. That Foppa took
a personal share in some part of the decoration seems certain,
and, as the best
painter in the land, it is probable that Pigello entrusted him with the work of
planning and designing the whole, and appointed him to direct and superintend
the execution. From this point of view it is easy to understand that
Bugati should have named him alone as the painter of the chapel, though he
1
Lomazzo, Lib. VI, p. 317, gives high praise to the frescoes of the Miracles, which
he ascribes, as already stated, to Vincenzo Civerchio surnamed il Vecchio, "the master
of Zenalc "(!).
Civerchio, we may note, must have been at least twenty years younger
than his supposed pupil ; Foppa, on the other hand, was probably about nine years
older than Zenale. This therefore affords further proof that the painter called by
Lomazzo "Vincenzo Civerchio surnamed il Vecchio" was certainly Vincenzo Foppa.
^
The preaching of this renowned Augustinian is one of the subjects represented in
the Library of S. Barnaba at Brescia (see chap vii, 168).
'
For an account of the preaching of S. Giovanni da Capistrano at Brescia in 145
see Annates Brixiani, Christofori Soldi, Rer. It. Script., Vol. XXI, f. 865, 866; see
also Faini, Raccolta di Varie Notizie (in Memorie, etc.) di Brescia, and Zamboni,
Misc. de Rebus Brixianis MSS. in the Queriniana Library, Brescia.
*
For Foppa's share in the frescoes of the Portinari Chapel of. Beltr., Empor., 1898 ;
Malaguzzi, Pitt. Lomb., p. 157, etc., and Mitano, part i, pp. 150, 151, 1906.
F