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

Chap. VI. FOPPA A CITIZEN OF MILAN. HIS SONS 139
company with Bcrtolino della Canonica in 1465/ the year when Foppa was
also working there. In 1467, as we saw, he was the bearer of Vincenzo's
letter to Pigello Portinari,' and from this time forward we have frequent
notices of him. Before 1482 he had married Margarita, a sister of the wellknown
Pavian notary Girolamo Moracavalli, who on several occasions pays
the painter the interest upon his wife's dowry of 125 florins. The last mention
of him occurs in December, 1489, and in a document of 1503 relating to his son,
the painter Paolo Caylina,^ he is spoken of as deceased. Another interesting
fact which we gather from this petition is, that Vincenzo was at that date a
citizen of Milan, though at present no one has succeeded in discovering when
these rights were acquired by him. The citizenship of Milan might be regarded
as a distinction which had been conferred upon the painter on account
of his great artistic merits, it being customary only to confer it on such
persons whose election would redound to the honour and credit of the city.
At the same time the fact probably indicates that Foppa had purchased some
property at Milan, for as a rule application for the rights of citizenship was
only made by persons desirous of acquiring houses or lands.
In 1483 Foppa determined to buy the house in the parish of S. Invenzio at
Pavia, which he had inhabited with his family^ for nine years— that is, ever
> See chap, in, p. 71.
^ Ibid., p. 73.
^
Who might be designated Paolo Caylina the younger, to distinguish him from
his uncle, the painter Paolo referred to on pp. 26, 28, 137, etc.
* Foppa had two sons, Giovanni Francesco and Evangelista, of whom we know
nothing beyond the few scattered allusions in the documents of the Appendix (see
II B, Foppa's sons). The first notice of them is of August 10, 1479 (B, No. i).
They must both have been of age then—that is over eighteen—as they had been summoned
to witness the will of a neighbour who lived in the parish of S. Invenzio.
Seemingly neither of them followed their father's profession, unless, indeed, a reference
in the document of December 19, 1485 (B, No. 3), could be taken as an indication
that Francesco was a painter. From this we learn that he was then living at Torre del
Mangano, close to the Certosa, hence the natural inference would be that he was painting
there ; the spelling of the word " painter " in the Latin document leaves us in doubt as
to whether it should be referred to Francesco or to his father Vincenzo. In this document
Francesco appears as one of two witnesses to the will of Margharita de Rossi,
widow of Bartolomeo de Mangano, and is called "Francisco de Fopa filio domini
Magistri Vicentii pictoris." Here the word "pictor/j" refers of course to the father;
but in the Archivio Notarile there is another copy of this deed in which the word is
written " pictorf," and would therefore refer to the son. As, however, this may be only
a slip of the pen, and as no other document speaks of Francesco Foppa as a painter,
we should scarcely be justified in regarding him as such. He must have died young,
as our last notice of him is of 1489. Evangelista constantly appears as his father's
representative at Pavia, as will be seen from documents Nos. 4, 8-14 (App. II B. ), and
is traceable up to 1502 ; but he also predeceased his father.