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

112 VINCENZO FOPPA
Bonifazio Bembo painted six of the small compositions, for which he
received the same remuneration as Foppa, i.e. 165 lire imperiali, 15 soldi,
and 8.^ lire imperiali for his share of the border (again one-fifth of the whole).
Costantino da Vaprio' painted only three pictures, and for these was paid on
January 20, 1477 (Doc. No. 31), and like the other masters he also painted
one-fifth of the border.
Zanetto Bugati apparently, as we saw, did nothing but his share of the
border ;
Vismara, on the other hand, painted five of the small pictures and his
share of the border, and on February 11, 1477, was paid for his work, i.e.
82 lire imperiali, 12 soldi, 6 denari, and 8J
lire imperiali for the border.
Owing to the total destruction of these frescoes we are unable to speak of
their merits, but the documents afford us a most convincing proof of their
great artistic importance. The description which they give us of this series
from the Life and Passion of Christ is sufficiently full to enable us to form
some idea of the plan of the work, and it is not improbable that certain cycles
of frescoes still existing in North Italy and dealing with the same subject may
have been closely allied in the general scheme of the composition with the
series in S. Giacomo. Among these wall paintings may be named the series
in twenty-one sections in the church of the suppressed convent of S. Bernardino,
near Ivrea, by a Piedmontese master, most probably Martino
Spanzotti ;" the frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari, also in twenty-one sections, in
S. Maria delle Grazie, at Varallo ; and those by Luini in S. Maria degli
Angeli at Lugano ; while the earliest version was perhaps the series in the
Church of the Annunziata di Borno in the Val Camonica, in which, in the
compartments on either side of the large central composition of the Crucifixion,
we have scenes from the Life of Christ interspersed with episodes from the
history of St. John Baptist. The series in S. Giacomo in all probability
established a precedent which exercised an enduring influence and was long
adhered to by painters ; for the frescoes at Borno, Ivrea, Varallo, and Lugano
cover a period, roughly speaking, of over fifty years.' The fame of the series
be put roughly at about lire 650, of current coin. We must, however, remember that
this does not represent the actual money value of the period, which at the time of Foppa
was much higher than it is to-day. The final payment to Foppa on December 16 (Doc.
No. 30) was only lire 93, soldi 15, but as he acknowledges that this is the full and complete
remuneration for his work, we must conclude that he had received various sums
on account at different times. This was also the case with Costantino, who received the
sum of lire 82, soldi 17, denari 6 (Doc. No. 31), due for his work.
1 Or his substitute. - See L. Ciaccio in Arte, fasc. xi-xii, 1904, p. 446 and foil.
8 The frescoes at Borno date from the last quarter of the fifteenth century ; those by
Gaudenzio Ferrari were completed by 1513 and those of Luini by 1529. The date of
the frescoes at Ivrea is not known, but they must certainly be earlier than those of
Gaudenzio Ferrari.