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

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Chap. V. ALTARPIECE, S. MARIA DELLE GRAZIE 119
the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception.' In the years immediately
succeeding this event the Church of S. Maria delle Grazie became the object
of special devotion, and it seems not improbable that some munificent donor,
fired with religious ardour, should have ordered for the High Altar a picture in
which special prominence was given to the Madonna crowned by angels, and
in which the chief saints of the Franciscan Order were to be commemorated.
—
For, that it was seen adorning the High Altar in 1525, we know from the
well-known passage in the Anonimo
"The ancona of the High Altar of Our Lady with the two figures on
each side in gilded niches in tempera, was by the hand of Master Vincenzo
Bresciano vecchio, as I
believe.'"'
Two hundred and fifty years later it was seen and described by Pasta:'
"The large panel at the end of the choir being an old picture must not be
omitted ; it represents in eight gilded compartments the B. Virgin between
two angels in the centre, and at the sides SS. Alessandro, Bonaventura,
Antonio, etc., and above St. Francis receiving the stigmata, flanked by
SS. Augustine, Monica, and others ; at the base [that is in the prcdella] there
is an Ecce Homo between two angels of small dimensions, and at the sides
the Annunciation, Visitation,
Nativity, and Flight into Egypt."*
In May, 1810, the Franciscans of S. Maria delle Grazie were suppressed,
and most of their possessions were acquired by the Congregazione di Carita.*
'
D. Calvi, Effemende, III, p. 384; Mutio, Sacra Istoria di Bergamo^ Parte Terza,
p. 50; Peregrinus, Vinea Bergomensis, pt. ii, cap. 86, p. 35; Finazzi, Deir antica
Chiesa di S. Maria delle Grazie, pp. 9, 10, etc. (who mentions that the confraternity
had already dedicated an altar in S. Francesco at Bergamo some years previously)
Ronchetti, and others.
- "In S. Maria delle Grazie, Monasterio dei Frati di S. Francesco Osservanti,
fuori della Porta di Cologno: La ancona dell' altare grande della nostra Donna con le
due figure per ciascun lato in nicchi dorati a guazzo, fu de man de Maestro Vincenzo
Bressano vecchio come credo" (ed. Frizzoni, p. 137).
^ Le Pitt, notab. di Bergamo, p. 104, ed. 1775. It is mentioned also some years
earlier in the MS. of Tassi's Pittori Bergamaschi {i']6i) as in the choir "di gusto
antico."
*
"La gran tavola neila testata del coro comeche sia antica non e da omettersi e
rappresenta in otto caselie derate la Beata Vergine fra due angeli in mezzo, e dai lati i
SS. Alessandro, Bonaventura, Antonio, etc., e sopra S. Francesco stimatizzato con ai
fianchi i SS. Agostino e Monica ed altri ; nel basamento v' ha un Ecce Homo fra due
angeli in picciole figurine e dalle bande 1' Annunziazione, la Visitazione, Nativita e
Gita in Egitto."
* See the documents in the Archives of the Casa di Ricovero (Stabilimento delle
Grazie a Casa di Ricovero) Doc. di Proprieta, fasc. iv, Istr. 24, Gennaio 181 1. The
inventory had been presented on June 3, 1810.