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

68 VINCENZO FOPPA
relating to St. Peter Martyr, which, as already observed, are by an artist of
marked individuality.
Another painter has recently been suggested' as possibly co-operating in
the paintings of the chapel, viz. the Brescian Bartolomeo da Prato. He
appears to have enjoyed the special patronage of Pigello,
being, according to
a document referred to by Caffi, "singularly favoured by him," while in a
petition addressed by Bartolomeo to the Duke after the death of Pigello, it is
said that the latter had been "eager to benefit him.""
in
In August, 1472, a " Bartolomeo Brexano " was paid for paintings executed
the Cascina Mirabello, a country house belonging to the Portinari family.'
From many records we know Bartolomeo da Prato to
have been an admirable
painter of "bards,"* a branch of art which was regarded as his special
profession, and the greatest generals of the day applied to him for these trappings
" perch^ e il suo mestiere "; ^
but we have no information as to his merits
as a fresco painter, and this being so, the reasons for connecting his name
with the decoration of the Portinari Chapel seem insufficient.^
* Etnporio, 1898, and Malaguzzi, Pittori Lombardi, p. 153 and foil.
- " Curioso di farli del bene" {Rassegna, November, 1901, and Malaguzzi, 154).
^ Malaguzzi, 155, note 3. See also for Mirabello: Be\tra.mi, Reminisceiise c/i Sforia ed
Arte; Arch. Stor. Lomb., XIII, p. 593, XVII, p. 671
;
Arte Italiana Deconitiva, 1906, etc.
* Painted bards or horse trappings were in great demand in the fifteenth and six-
by
teenth centuries, and the art was practised not only by decorative painters, but also
many of the great masters (see Vasari, ed. Mil., Vol. II, 553, 554; III, 544; IV, 498, etc.).
' Rassegna, id., 165, 166.
® We do not think it by any means certain that the " Bartolomeo Brexano" who
executed frescoes in the Cascina Mirabello was Bartolomeo da Prato; it is quite as
probable that he may have been Bartolomeo Caylina, the brother-in-law of Foppa, who
was also a Brescian, and who we know was sometimes spoken of as Bartolomeo Bresciano.
We have never found Da Prato mentioned as a fresco painter ; but Caylina, we believe,
was working in the Certosa in 1465 with other painters (see pp. 71, 138), among them his
brother-in-law Foppa, and between 1475 and 1476 he was deputed by Costantino da
Vaprio to take his place in the execution of certain frescoes — part of a very important
work— in the Church of S. Giacomo at Pavia (chap, iv, pp. 107-13). Foppa, writing to
Pigello Portinari in June, 1467, says: "I am sending to you Bartolomeo my brotherin-law"
(Doc. No. 12), which may be variously interpreted. It might of course
only have referred to the circumstance of Bartolomeo being the bearer of Foppa's
letter ; but, on the other hand, it might have referred to work to be executed by the
Brescian painter Caylina for Portinari. So far as we know, however, there is no extant
specimen of this master's work. Nothing remains at Mirabello which could throw any
light upon the subject, for the few inferior fragments still existing there could scarcely
have belonged to the principal scheme of decoration, and it is therefore out of the question
to attempt to connect his name with any of the frescoes of the Chapel of St.
Martyr.
Peter