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

Chap. IV. CEILING FRESCOES IN CHAPEL OF RELICS loi
Vincenzo Foppa with his colleagues, Bonifazio Bembo and Zanetto Bugati, said
they were willing to do the work for i6o ducats ; but upon this their rivals
offered to reduce their price to 150 ducats.
This estimate, Gadio added, was to cover all expenses for scaffolding and
fresh plaster, as well as for removing the old plaster from the wall ; and was
also to include "a border (or framework) half a braccia in width (30 c.),
of the
colour of the woodwork of the ancona, to reach to the ceiling, and to be
painted in similar fashion to the ancona." Gadio concluded by saying that
he had failed to find those painters who (according to information which he
had received in a letter from the Duke) had offered to paint the ceiling of the
chapel for 100 ducats ;
the painters unanimously declaring that they had never
named so low a price.
To this letter the Duke of Milan replied on July i, and informed Gadio
that, of the two drawings for the ceiling which had been sent for his
inspection, he preferred the one with the Eternal Father in the centre
surrounded by cherubim, by Giov. Pietro da Corte and his company. For
the vaulting he directed that, instead of the twelve angels proposed for each
section, the painters were to execute representations of the Annunciation,
Nativity, Passion, and Resurrection, and he wound up his letter by saying that
he was satisfied that the work should be entrusted to this company of painters.^
Thus, for niggardly reasons of a too rigid economy, the
Castello of Pavia
lost a series of works by Vincenzo Foppa, who was undoubtedly more fitted
than any other master to undertake the commission, since to him was
eventually entrusted the most important item in
whole chapel— i.e.
the decorative scheme of the
the ancona—between which and the frescoes of the vaulting
it was certainly intended that the most complete harmony should prevail ; for
the members of Giov. Pietro da Corte's company, though considered good
enough to decorate the ceiling, were evidently not thought "sufficiently
skilled " to undertake the paintings of the ancona.
In 1475 Foppa, who may at that moment have been at Brescia painting the
martyrdom of the Beato Simonino (?) (see pp. 1 14-17), received an urgent summons
from Simonetta, dated May 22 (Doc. No. 26), bidding him mount his
horse and come at once to Pavia, as the Duke desired his presence on account
^ This letter was published by Magenta (Doc. No. 380), but with an error of punctuation
which alters the sense. The explanation which we have given in the text is confirmed
by an unpublished letter from Gadio to Simonetta of July 2, 1474 (Arch, di St. Mil.),
in which it is clearly stated that the four scenes of the Annunciation, Nativity, etc.,
were, by order of the Duke, to be painted in the sections of the vaulting in place of the
twelve angels. At the end of the letter Gadio begs that the drawing submitted to the
Duke and in part approved, may be returned to the painter Stefano de' Fedeli, who was
to execute the frescoes on the ceiling.