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

Chap. III. FOPPA'S LETTER TO PIGELLO PORTINARI 73
wife Bona of Savoy in the Rocca at Monza, saw it completed at that date.
It must unfortunately be included in the long list of large works executed by
Foppa which have absolutely disappeared, leaving no trace or record behind
them; but there always remains a hope that some portions of these altarpieces
may still be in existence hidden away in village churches in North Italy or in
private collections in that country or abroad, and may yet be brought to
light.
The next documents of the years 1467, 1468, so convincingly prove that
Vincenzo stood in the highest favour both with the Duke and with Pigello
that we may unhesitatingly affirm that he had carried out the works
Portinari,
ordered by them to their entire satisfaction ; they afford therefore an indirect
proof that the Monza altarpiece was executed and approved. The first of
these documents is a letter from Vincenzo to Pigello (Doc. No. 12) which is
an
important testimony to the intimate relations at that time existing between
the painter and his patron. It was written from Pavia, and the bearer of it
was Vincenzo's brother-in-law Bartolomeo, whom we now know to have
been Bartolomeo Caylina of Brescia. Vincenzo is desirous of buying a
house at Pavia ; but though he had been living there for close upon eleven
years he had not acquired the rights of citizenship, and no strangers were permitted
to buy property in the city or in Pavian territory, or to enjoy the rights
and privileges of those, who were either citizens by birth or on whom that
honour had been conferred,' According to the laws of those days, a person
desirous of buying property in a city of which he was not a native was bound,
first to apply to the authorities for permission to acquire citizenship, and had
then to pay a certain tax, which at Pavia, as we learn from Foppa's letter,
amounted to ten florins. The Duke, however, as supreme head, had the
power, by a special decree, of granting to his friends or members of his
household the privilege of acquiring property without any of the usual formalities.
It was to obtain this favour and to spare himself expense that
Foppa decided to approach Portinari on the subject, being desirous first to
attain to all the rights and privileges of a citizen and to buy property in the
city, and later on "to cause himself to be made a citizen " (" piu adaxio mi faro
fare citadino)."
Portinari lost no time in complying with the painter's wishes and must at
once have broached the subject to the Duchess, for less than a week after the
receipt by Pigello of Foppa's letter, Bianca Maria wrote to the authorities at
Pavia warmly recommending "our well-beloved Vincentio de Fopa" ("dilectum
nostrum ") and directing that he is to be permitted to acquire whatever he
'
See Statuta Civilia Civitatis et Comitatus Papie, Rubrica CXLVII, ed. Borgofranco,
Pavia, 1505.