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

66 VINCENZO FOPPA
may only have executed a small part himself, being perhaps engaged at the
same time upon works for the Duke and for other patrons.
By a different and certainly weaker hand than that of the painter of the
scenes referring to St. Peter Martyr, is the composition of the Eternal Father
in a glory of cherubim with groups of kneeling angels on either side, which
fills the arch on the wall above the Annunciation, and that of the Assumption
on the arch above the entrance to the chapel, with groups of apostles on
either side, and a landscape with rocks, water, and distant hills in the
background.
Both these compositions are evidently by the same painter, but it appears
to us that they must have suffered severely at the time of the restoration in
1871-73. The apostles on the left are quite modern in type,^ and the angels in
both have lost much of their fifteenth century character, so far at least as the
heads are concerned.
The Annunciation must from the first have been intended to form part of
the composition of the Eternal Father in glory, yet it appears to be certainly
the work of another hand ; and in this fresco, more particularly, we might
perhaps suspect the co-operation of some Florentine painter,^ since the types
and general grouping of the composition seem on the whole, more Tuscan
than Lombard.'
We might conjecture, then, that no less than four masters were associated
in the pictorial decoration of the Portinari Chapel, inclusive of Foppa, who
we assume may have superintended the whole, and exclusive of the minor
artists who must have been employed to paint the draperies and flesh
tones of
the terra-cotta angels, to lay on the gold wherever it was required,^ and to
execute other decorative work throughout the building. But there would
be nothing remarkable in this. We know from countless documents that
it was usual for painters at this period to work in companies, and the artists
in whose company we find Foppa most frequently named are those with
whom he was for many years intimately associated in works at Pavia :'
^ It has already been stated (p. 63) that when the whitewash was removed it was
found that only the contours of many of the figures in this fresco remained ; the modern
aspect of these apostles is therefore easily explained.
^ The angel's mantle is, however, of that shade of reddish lilac so frequently met
with in the works of Foppa and his followers ; the white robe, as already stated, is of
admirable quality, but the mantle of the Virgin is entirely restored.
' We cannot follow Monger! in ascribing the Assumption and the Almighty in
Glory, to the painter of the Four Fathers of the Church. In the Annunciation he noted
"reminiscences of some Florentine contemporary of Fra Filippo Lippi" {op. cit., p. 63).
* For decorative work of this description see chap, viii and Doc. No. 69.
''
See chap. iv.