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

;
Chap. IV. INVENTORY OF THE RELICS, 1487 105
on both sides. On one side is the image of the Virgin Mary, on the other an
image of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ with glass sides, precious stones
and pearls, and containing many relics—namely, seventeen—the names of which
are not known. This Majestas is adorned with letters round about.
5. Item, a large Majestas in the form of an ancona with thirty-one
compartments containing relics under squares of glass, and with the image
of the Annunciation of the B. Virgin Mary adorned with pearls on one side,
and on the other an image of the same B. Virgin with the Child on her knee,
having on one side the figure of St. Catherine and on the other that of
St. John Baptist ;
likewise adorned with pearls ; at the bottom is a large oculus
of glass with the figure of St. John baptizing Our Lord and Saviour in
the River Jordan, and many oculi which ought to have glass are wanting
(which possibly means that the glass of many oculi is missing).
These notices are too fragmentary to permit of any attempt at a reconstruction
of the position of these paintings in the ancona, but they are not
without importance, as they afford some idea of the principal part of the
work and give us a clue as to the subjects treated by Foppa and Bembo.
Item 5, the great Majestas in the manner of an ancona, which contained an
unusually large number of relics (thirty-one in all), may possibly have formed the
centre of the whole work, occupying the place of honour over the altar
while the panels referred to as painted on both sides (Items 4 and 5), may
perhaps have been the shutters of an inner shrine containing some of the
most precious of the relics.^
No trace is found in this inventory of the two hundred figures of saints, the
execution of which had been entrusted to Costantino da Vaprio and Giacomo
Vismara. We know that in December, 1476 (Doc. No. 29), these paintings
archiepiscopi Canturiensis, etc. etc., et omnia suprascripta capitula sunt reposita sub
lateribus vitreis in ipsa maiestate.
"4. Item maiestas una coperta sive laborata ad ocellos gialdos sive croceos in duabus
particulis: ab una adest imago Virginis Marie et ab alia ymago Passionis Domini
Nostri Jesu Christi cum lateribus vitreis et lapidibus ac perlis et cum multis reliquiis
numero XVII inclusis quorum nomina ignorantur et que est laborata cum litteris
circum circha.
"5. Item maiestas una magna ad modum ancone cum capitulis XXXI reliquiarum
tncluxis sub tegulis vitreis et cum ymagine Anuntiate Virginis Marie laborata perlis ab
una parte et ab altera parte est ymago Beate Marie Virginis cum puero in gremio habeas
ab una parte imagines sancte Catharine et ab alia parte sancti Johannis Baptiste
similiter laborate perlis et in fondo adest oculus magnus vitreus cum imagine sancti
Johannis baptizantis Dominum Salvatorem Nostrum in flumine Jordane et defficiunt
oculi multi qui debebant habere vitreos."
'
From the later inventory of 1499 we know that the Majestas of Item i was
provided with shutters or "wings" (see p. 106, note 5).