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

134 VINCENZO FOPPA
ternity or Disciplina of S^' Brigida, a Majestas with St. Bridget, St. John
Baptist, and other saints, and above, the Crucifixion with the two thieves, St.
John the Evangelist, the Madonna, and the Magdalen, all which figures, as
also the Crucifixion, were to be of a like degree of excellence as those painted
and composed by "Master Vincenzo of Milan" for the altar of the late Battista
Spinola in the Church of S. Domenico ; and on October 2, i486 (Doc. 40),
Giovanni Mazone of Alessandria, the same who in 1463 had been commissioned
to paint the altarpiece for the Chapel of St, John Baptist and to
surpass in it Foppa's paintings on the ceiling, was ordered by the Guild of the
Berettieri to paint for their chapel in the choir of S. Agostino at Genoa, an
altarpiece with the Madonna and four saints, these last to be chosen by
Brother Nicola of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine. It was to be
composed upon the same lines as "the Majestas with the Blessed Virgin
Mary in the Church of S. Domenico over the altar of the Spinola family."'
These documents give us a clue to the composition of the Spinola altarpiece ;
the upper course evidently contained the Crucifixion with saints, which
composition was copied by Barbagelata; in the lower, were represented the
Madonna and Child with St. John Baptist, the patron of Battista Spinola,
and probably three other saints chosen by the donor. In the document of
1485 Foppa's picture is spoken of, as over the altar of the late Battista Spinola,
and Alizeri's statement" that Battista had, before 1485, ordered an altarpiece
from Foppa for his chapel in S. Domenico, seems hardly in accordance with
facts, and it has led to the very inaccurate statement being made that Battista
Spinola ordered the picture in 1483, which is an impossibility, for Battista
died and was buried in this chapel in 1470.^
The Spinola Chapel proper seems to have been that founded in 1423 by
Emmanuele and Raffaello Spinola and dedicated to the most Holy Name of
God and later to St. Bartholomew.* In this chapel Battista di S. Luca the
1
A second picture was also proposed for Mazone's imitation, that of the Fieschi
family over the altar of St. George in the cathedral (Alizeri, II, 54). No painter's
name is mentioned in connection with either of these works, but we know from the
document of June 8, 1485, that the painter of the Spinola aUarpiece was "Vincenzo of
Milan." Possibly, therefore, he was also the painter of the Fieschi altarpiece, for it is
evident that both these works were regarded as masterpieces ;
in that case he would have
been employed by three out of the four greatest Genoese famiHes, the "Capo de' Nobili,"
i.e. the Spinola, Doria, and Fieschi, the fourth being the Grimaldi (see Giustiniani,
A nnali di Genovd).
' I' 365.
^ See De Augustini, Elenchica . . Conveiitus Divi Domiiiici, etc., 1678, f.
97 ;
Pasqua, Memorie e Sepolcri . . nelle Chiese di Genova e siioi subttrbii, f. 50.
* See Federico Federici, Scnitinio della Nobilta Genovese, and Battilana, Genealogie,
etc. ; De Augustini, 97
; Pasqua, 50, etc.