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

"
Chap. IV. FRESCOES OF S. GIACOMO iii
threatened them with an action for breach of contract with costs, and declared
moreover that she would employ another company of artists to do the work at
the expense of the defaulters. The painters, who were manifestly in the
wrong, sought to mollify their employer by assuring her that the delay was
not due to any fault or negligence on their part, and that they still held themselves
bound by the contract of July lo.
Zaccarina Lonati, whether satisfied or not with their assurances, decided
that the most effectual means of obtaining what she required for S. Giacomo
would be to appeal directly to the Duke for his support in this controversy
with the painters. Her petition received prompt attention, for on August 23,
1476 (Doc. No. 28), the Duke writes to Vincenzo Foppa, Bembo, and Vismara,
commanding them not to break their contract with Madonna Lonati, but so
to arrange matters that without in any way retarding the work in the Chapel
of the Relics, one of the company should be deputed to carry on the work in
S. Giacomo. By this means the contract would be fulfilled, and the risk of
the work being spoiled by the collaboration of too many painters would be
avoided. The Duke directs that Costantino da Vaprio (who was not then at
Pavia) be informed as to the arrangements for the work at S. Giacomo and be
given to understand that nothing prejudicial to his interests in the matter is
intended.^ Not a word is said about Bugati, as he had died in March of
this year, having painted at S. Giacomo only a fifth part of the large border
framing the whole composition.
Thus matters were satisfactorily settled ; and by the end of 1476 the
frescoes at S. Giacomo were finished. The document containing this
information—of December 16, 1476 (No. 30)—is especially important, as it
gives us a precise account of the leading part taken by Foppa in this work.
The Life and Passion of our Lord were depicted in twenty-one sections
(capitoli, as the document calls them), the whole being framed by a large
decorative border. The central composition, the Crucifixion, was four times
the size of the other pictures, and this great fresco, occupying the centre
of the wall, was the work of Vincenzo Foppa, who also painted part of the
border and six of the smaller compositions. For these last he received as
payment 165 lire imperiali, 15 soldi ; for the central composition 85 lire
imperiali ; and for his share of the border (the fifth part) 8^ lire imperiali.
^ At the end of the missive the injunction is reiterated : "this is not to be prejudicial
to the interests of Master Costantino or to the work executed in his name " —that is by his
substitute Bartolomeo Caylina ;
a further interesting proof that this master probably did
execute some part of the work and must therefore have been a fresco painter of merit.
"
The Milanese lira imperiale in the second half of the fifteenth century was worth
20 soldi imp. ; one soldo imp. was worth 12 denari. The total amount of Foppa's
remuneration for his work in S. Giacomo was lire imp. 279, soldi 5
;
and as one lira
imp. was equal to lire 2, soldi 10, in the present day, the price of Foppa's work may