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

I02
VINCENZO FOPPA
of certain paintings which were to be executed there ;
and without doubt one
of these paintings was the chapel altarpiece. From this and other notices
we might infer that the date when the painting of the ancona was begun was
the summer of 1475. We know that in June, 1474, Pietro da Corte had
informed Gadio that the Duke had decided only to have the ceiling painted
and to let the ancona stand over ;^ and as the letters of the end of June and
later speak only of the painting of the ceiling, we may assume that the
statement was correct. But by the following May the Duke must have made
up his mind to have the ancona executed, and in consequence summoned
Foppa.
That the artists were busily engaged in the Chapel of the Relics throughout
thewinter of 1476 we know from an unpublished letter of Gadio's to the
Duke of August 6, 1476, in which he says that Coyro the treasurer had complained
of the heat of the chapel owing to
the proximity of an oven near the
wall where the altar formerly stood ;" Gadio observes that more than a year
ago he had written to the governor of the castle. Count Giovanni Attendolo,
to have this oven removed, but the order was not carried out. The painters
had now petitioned that it might be left through the coming winter, as it
would be a great convenience to them and advantageous to their work,
especially in the matter of laying on the gold. Their wishes were acceded to,
and it was decided not to remove the oven until the winter was passed.'
The work in the chapel, however, had not continued uninterruptedly, for
as far back as July 10, 1475, the four painters of the ancona had bound
themselves by contract to execute a series of frescoes in the Church of
S. Giacomo, near Pavia, for Madonna Zaccarina Beccaria Lonati, as we shall
see later.
On December 7, 1476 (Doc. No. 29), Gadio announces that 400 lire
imperiali have been paid to the painters Vismara, Bembo, Foppa, and
Costantino da Vaprio (the
latter having probably taken the place of Zanetto
Bugati, who had died in the early part of the year), for painting the chapel,
in the hope that these masters may be able to finish the work by Christmas.
This they say is impossible, but they promise to have it ready before Easter.
^ See p. 100, and Magenta, II, No. 378.
^ The altar would, of course, have been removed from its original position when the
operations connected with the ancona commenced and the structure was set up in the
chapel.
^
See also D' Adda, Indagini . . . su/ia Libreria Visconteo-Sforzesca, p. 147, and'
Magenta, II, 330, where the "camera e gli e il forno " (the room containing the oven)
near the chapel is mentioned in a list of rooms in the Castello, the paintings of which
were in a bad state and in need of repair. The date of this list is said by Magenta to
be 1469.