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

Chap. III. THE CASTLES OF PAVIA AND MILAN 75
in this letter, as a personal favour to the Duke of Milan, to grant similar immunities
to the painter when passing through their dominions. The privileges
named in this decree are granted to him as the "just due of his virtues
and skill in the art of painting," and also in recognition of the "faithfulness
and devotion to us and our government displayed by our well-beloved Master
Vincenzo de Foppa."
Notices of Foppa in the next few years are extremely scanty, and we have
no certain information as to the work which occupied him.
We know that the painters with whom we found him associated in earlier
years, and others with whom his name is coupled later, were busily engaged in
the Castello of Pavia decorating the rooms for the advent of Galeazzo and
Bona after their marriage in 1468 ; and later the Duke, with the aid of Gadio,
drew up a programme for the redecoration of many of the apartments ; but
the painter most frequently named is Bembo, and strange as it may seem,
considering what we know to have been the Duke's opinion of Foppa's powers,
his name never appears among the painters working there at this date.
It is true that Malaguzzi^ cites Foppa as one of those employed there, and
refers to the years 1469-71 as the period of Bembo's activity in the Castello of
Pavia, "for the paintings of which he, with Zanetto Bugati and Foppa, had
composed the designs " ; but the document to which he refers as a proof of this
is in point of fact of 1474, being one of the well-known series dealing with the
ancona for the Chapel of the Relics (see chap, iv, pp. 93-107). It is possible
that documents proving Foppa's co-operation with these painters at Pavia
between 1469 and 1472 may be in existence, but so far we have been unable
to trace them.
From 1469 onwards we have many notices relating to painters in the
Castello at Milan. ^ A " Magistro Vincenzo" is then spoken of in company
with the painters Pietro and Baldassare. On February 22 Gadio is commanded
to have scaffolding erected for the paintings of Master Vincenzo, and
on the following day the Ducal Treasurer is ordered to prepay the painters,
Pietro, Baldassare, and Vincenzo, for their work. On May 27 the Duke
sends from Abbiate to order that certain rooms are to be painted ;
one, the
Saletta, is to be decorated by Master Vincenzo with lilies and stars on an
azure field ;
according to a letter of Gadio's of May 31, 1469, the azure for the
decoration
of this room (one of the most costly items required by painters^ in
those days) was bought at Nuremberg.^ It does not appear, however, that
" Master Vincenzo" carried out this plan of decoration, for at the beginning
1
Op. cit., p. 107.
2 Beltrami, Castello di Milano, ed. 1885, p. 102, and 1894, p. 240 and foil.
' Calvi, II, 91 note.
* Beltrami, Cast., 244 note.