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

io6
VINCENZO FOPPA
were being prepared by the two artists just mentioned at Milan, and it is
improbable that they were brought to Pavia after the death of the Duke.
The absence of any mention of them among the fragments deposited in
the treasury of the Castello suggests their never having been delivered.
After the inventory of 1487 we have no further reference to the relics
until twelve years later. Apparently they remained in the treasury until
the French occupation of 1499, when Lodovico Sforza was forced to fly
from his dominions and Louis XII took possession of the Duchy of Milan.
Through the good offices of Teodoro Guainerio/ the physician and privy
councillor, the city of Pavia then obtained the permission of the French King
to remove the relics from the Castello to the Cathedral, and in the beginning
of September, 1499 (as we learn from the Deliberations of the Council at
Pavia - ), this removal took place ; after which the relics were officially
inspected. On the 22nd of November a report relating to this inspection was
drawn up,^ in which it was stated that four chests and one ancona ("capse
quatuor et anchona ") had been deposited in the Archives of the Cathedral.''
Among the countless items enumerated in this list as contained in the first
chest we recognize several which were mentioned in the earlier inventory of
1487 (see p. 104) ; for instance, the Majestas of Item i, which, we learn from
this later inventory, had two shutters or "wings" with a gold ground, and
contained, in addition to the wood of the Holy Cross, a fragment of the
Winding-sheet of our Lord and a portion of the Lance which pierced His
side ;
^
and the Crucifixion of Item 2, with the additional information that this
panel also had a gold ground ; ^ a third entry may possibly be identical with
^ Guainerio, though by birth a Pavian, had for years been in the service of the
French King. He was one of the envoys sent from France to Pavia in 1491 and on this
,
occasion the Duke gave orders that he was to be treated with special honour (see the
document of February 26, 1491, published by Magenta, II, 446, 447).
^ Atti di Provvisioni, September i and 5, Arch, del Museo di Storia Patria, Pavia.
' Atti di Agostino Gravanago, November 22, 1499.
* The fact is confirmed by another entry, according to which the Pavian Council, on
November 22, 1499, relieves Ambrogio Bozzoli and Benedetto Ripalta of all further
responsibility in the matter, declaring that they had duly deposited in the Archives near
the Sacristy in the Cathedral of Pavia these four chests with the relics and the ancona.
"Quod fideliter consignarunt capsas quatuor cum reliquiis et anchonam in Archivio
prope Sacristiam in ecclesia majori Papie" (Atti di Prov., etc., Arch. Mus. Stor.
Patria,
Pavia).
* " Item quedam Maiestas cum duabus allis lignea, deaurata in qua sunt loca undccim
munita reliquiarum, primo de ligno S. Crucis. Item de vello in quo involutum fuit
corpus D. nostri Jesu Christi. Item de lancia de qua vulneratus fuit," etc.
^ " Item alia Maiestas lignea deaurata que habet in medio imaginem Crucifixi in qua
est de ligno crucis, item de reliquiis S. Marie," etc.