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

76 VINCENZO FOPPA
of December the Duke writes
to Gadio that he intends to spend Christmas in
the Castello and that the rooms are to be provisionally painted as rapidly as
possible,
the Saletta in murrey^ and white, the Sala Grande in green; and the
painters were to work day and night in order to have it ready. By the 17th
the work was far advanced, for one of the household who had come to Milan
to see whether all would be in readiness by Christmas writes that the Duke
will be well satisfied.^ We may conclude that Vincenzo and his colleague
were the painters employed in these two rooms ; but is this Vincenzo Foppa?
We can scarcely believe that a master, who by the Duke's own showing
was the most distinguished in the land, would have been employed on purely
decorative work such as any ordinarily skilled house-painter could have
executed, and it seems much more probable that this Vincenzo was V. de
Pestegallo (or Peregallo), whom we find on other occasions associated with
Pietro Marchesi,^ and who was evidently one of his "Compagni." In 1472
they received payment for work executed in the upper chapel, and they were
subsequently sued by Santino da Ello for the sum of ninety-three ducats, the
cost of gold leaf supplied for the decoration of this chapel/ Pietro Marches!
is never, we believe, mentioned as an associate of Foppa, but seems rather to
have belonged to a rival company who some years later sought to oust the
Brescian master and his colleagues from employment in the Castello of Pavia.
That Foppa should have taken an active part in the decoration of the castles
of Milan and Pavia is extremely probable, but no records are at present known
to prove that he was working there in these years,' and moreover we have
indirect evidence that in 1469 he could not have been engaged upon any work
of great magnitude and importance, as in that year he appears to have sought
employment in the Campo Santo at Pisa. His application was made by letter,
but as arrangements had already been concluded with Benozzo Gozzoli,
Vincenzo's offer was declined, the authorities
"returning him eleven soldi as
requested in his letter" (Doc. No. 17).
Unfortunately, we do not know in which month this correspondence took
'
Morello, that is mulberry colour (see the treatise on colours in Lomazzo, Trattato,
Haydock's translation, Book III, chap, in, p. 99 and foil.).
"
Beltr., 246-48. For the paintings in the Castello at Milan see also Angelucci, Catalogo
della Armeria Reale di Torino, pp. 43-46, note.
^ Beltr., Sala delle Asse, p. 18. See also Arch. Star, Lomb., June, 1895, p. 411.
* Beltr., p. 382 note, and Malaguzzi, pp. 220, 225.
'"
Signor Beltrami {La Vita nel Castello di Rlilano, p. 20, ed. 1900) indeed states that
in February, 1469, the Duke gave orders that scaffolding was to be prepared for the
painter Vincenzo Foppa; but the only record known to us relating to the painter Vincenzo
in this month and year is the letter of February 22 (alluded to on the preceding
page) and here no mention of the painter's surname occurs.
For the reasons stated in
the text we think we are justified in identifying him with Vincenzo Pestegallo.