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

98 VINCENZO FOPPA
height of each of the two hundred saints to be represented on these panels
was, as we learn from Doc. 29, three-quarters of a cubit (45 c.). It is clear,
therefore, that paintings of this size could not have been on the small caskets,
and though the inventory of 1487 speaks of some of them as "painted," and
"painted with figures," it is certain that these figures could only have been
of very small dimensions.
The words "sopra caduna capsetta"' must therefore
be interpreted as "over" not "upon," each reliquary, the width of the
panel in each case being sufficient for the figure of one saint only." The
arrangements relating to these two hundred caskets and paintings, as we have
seen, caused considerable delay ; and then came the further question of the
expense. Two thousand ducats had been assigned for the whole work, of
which only one thousand now remained to defray the cost of painting, which
Gadio considered insufficient, and he made elaborate calculations as to the
probable cost and as to the cheapest way of having the work done. To gild
the chapel would, he calculated,
the whole ancona and the decorative work in
amount to nearly 2,200 ducats, while, on the other hand, if it was all painted
in white, with only the decorative part in gold, the expense would be less and
would come to rather more than 1,600 ducats.
He therefore informs Simonetta that he proposes to send the drawings by
Guiniforte Solario or some other master, and he hopes that the Duke will
select whichever design may appear to him most suitable, and will also state
which painters he would propose to engage, "for," he observes, "all the
painters of Milan, both good and bad, desire to be employed on this work."^
This is the letter already referred to of June 4
; and four days later
Gadio writes two further despatches on the subject. The first is to Simonetta
(Doc. No. 20),^ and contains the important information that he is sending the
masters Vincenzo, Bonifazio, and Zanetto with designs for the ancona and
the ceiling of the chapel, and he begs the secretary to
introduce these painters
into the presence of the Duke. The second, much longer letter is addressed
to the Duke himself (Doc. No. 21),' and informs him that he (Gadio) had sent
the painters Vincenzo, Bonifazio da Cremona, and Giacomo Vismara a short
time before to see the chapel and the ancona at Pavia in order to make
designs and an estimate of the probable cost of the paintings, and that he is
now sending Vincenzo, Bonifazio, and Zanetto with these designs for the
1
June 4; Magenta, 375. Compare also Doc. 21 : "The saints which are to be
painted above or over the spaces of these caskets" ("sopra li spazii di quelle tale
capsette ").
^ " Che piu de uno non gli ne potria star sopra caduna capsetta" (June 4).
^ " Perche tutti questi (pittori) di Milano, et li sufficienti et li non, rechedono di
dipingerla" (Magenta, No. 375).
* Ibid., No. 377.
'
6
7^2^,^ No. 376.