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

CHAPTER V
Paintings c. 1470- 1480
The Painting of the Beato Simonino at Brescia—The ceiling of the Averoldi Chapel in
the Carmine Brescia—The altarpiece for S. Maria delle Grazie at Bergamo, now
Brera—The St. Francis—St. Jerome, Bergamo—Madonna, Frizzoni Collection,
Milan —Annunciation, Arcore— In the Borromeo Collection, Milan—Ecce Homo,
Collection of M. Cheramy, Paris.
If Brescian writers be correct in saying that Foppa painted in the Church of
the Carmine at Brescia (in the third chapel on the right) the figure of the
Beato Simone or Simonino of Trent, we might assume that he returned to
that city in 1475. Capriolo, the first edition of whose history was published
in 1505, says there was a painting of S. Simone in the Church of the Carmine.^
The child Simone Viendorben- is said to have been murdered by
Jews at Trent on Good Friday, March 24, 1475 ; in the summer of the
following year a terrible hailstorm devastated the country round Brescia
and destroyed the crops, and on this occasion, says Capriolo, "the image of
the Beato Simone Trentino, a painting in the Church of the Carmine, was
seen to shed tears," a manifestation which, according to Faini, who quotes
from earlier chronicles,^ continued for some days, and was witnessed by crowds
of people, who even flocked thither by night with torches to see the miracle !
We have therefore definite evidence that the work must have been produced
between March 24, 1475, and July, 1476 ; and if Foppa was the painter and
executed it at Brescia, the most probable date would have been April to May,
1475-
We saw (Doc. No. 26) that on May 22 of that year Foppa was apparently
not at Pavia, as he received a summons from the Duke bidding him mount his
horse and start at once for that city. Later we know that the painter was
^ In Chronica de rebus Brixianorum, p. Ixxx.
"^
Or
P- 135-
" Unferdorben," as he is sometimes called. See Arch. Stor. Lomb., 1889,
^ Faini {Memorie, etc., MS. unpaged) quotes from Giovanni Maria Faustini, who
in turn derived his information from two early chronicles by the Brescian citizens Paolo
and Bonifazio Borelli, and Angelo Curvo.
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