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

Chap. V. ANNUNCIATION, ARCORE 131
colouring, types, and forms, in the expression and vitality of all the heads, in
the treatment of the drapery, and in many other minor details, this admirable
little picture at once proclaims its authorship by the overwhelming testimony
of internal evidence. The modelling of the head and treatment of the hands
connect it closely with the Castello Madonna and with the St. Jerome, while
the charming angel on the left, with its eager and life-like expression, recalls
the angels in Cav. Noseda's picture and in the Brera altarpiece. The colour
is of great force and brillancy ; red predominates, as in the robe of the
Madonna and in the curtain on the left, which forms the background to the
figure of the little angel and envelops its right arm. The plant in the majolica
pot, here set on the ledge of the open window, is one of Foppa's favourite
accessories, and is almost identical with the motive in the foreground of a late
work by the master, the processional banner at Orzinuovi.
The St. Jerome was formerly in the collection of Count Guglielmo Lochis,
and came by bequest with many other pictures to the Bergamo Gallery in
1866.^ Of its earlier history nothing is known, and the same must unfortunately
be said of the Frizzoni Madonna, whose owner is unable to furnish any
information relating to the provenance of his picture.
In the category of works probably produced between 1470 and 1480,
may be included the beautiful and highly characteristic Annunciation belonging
to Madame Vittadini at Arcore, with unusually gentle types and an almost
Carpaccio-like feeling in the treatment of the foreground. In its way, this
picture is as perfect and representative an example of this period of Foppa's
career, as was the Noseda Madonna of the master's early time, and in its
simplicity and poetic feeling is almost equally enchanting. In every part of
the work the master's character is strikingly apparent, as will be seen on
comparing it with the illustrations of numerous other pictures by him. The
hands, both of the angel and of the Madonna, which are identical in form and
pose with the hands in so many of these examples, and the rapt and earnest
expression of the Virgin, would alone stamp it as an indubitable work of the
Brescian master. In colour too it is characteristic, notably in the brilliant
scarlet of the angel's mantle, a shade very distinctive of Foppa and his followers
in the Lombard school. The Madonna is clad in the usual blue mantle worn over
a pink robe, and the drapery on her head is
All the details^the majolica pots
of a light shade of yellow.
with plants in the foreground, the landscape
framed in by the arched opening in the centre, the bedroom of the
Madonna seen through the half-open door on the right—are exquisitely
finished and give proof of the loving care bestowed by Foppa upon work
which must have been so far above the level of the eye, that a less conscientious
painter might have been inclined to scamp that portion of his task ; for
*
See Z' Arte in Bergamo, pp. 22 and 51.