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

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146 VINCENZO FOPPA
recognized Brescia, on account of the supposed resemblance of one of the
buildings to the Rotonda— the old cathedral in that city.^ Full of his character
also are the two archers on the left, and the pose of the hand and position
of the fingers of one of these marksmen is so distinctive of Foppa, as to
be almost equivalent to a signature.
The predominating colours here are scarlet and deep red, combined with
yellows golden and ochre, dark purple, and shades of green. Letters are used
decoratively on the cuirass of the foremost archer on the left, but though they
are clearly decipherable, the combinations appear to be purely arbitrary and
without meaning, unless indeed their significance is
baffle all
so subtly, concealed as to
attempts at a solution.
Opinions differ as to the probable date of these two representations of
St. Sebastian, but from every point of view the Brera fresco appears to us to
be the more primitive, and the Castello picture to be more advanced and
developed, both in the accomplished treatment of the figure and in the quality
of the whole composition. Strictly speaking therefore, as a work of later
date in the chronological development of the master, it should have been discussed
in a subsequent chapter, but for reasons of comparison it is more convenient
to place it here.^ The subject of St. Sebastian was treated by Jacopo
Bellini, as, for example, in the Paris sketch-book,^ a composition which it is
interesting to compare with these two paintings ; many points of similarity
are noticeable between them, links which serve to show the great advance
made by the pupil and his development of his master's motives.
As a rule, Milanese writers have left us but scant notices of Foppa's works,
but in the case of the fresco in the Brera we have numerous references relating
to it, beginning with Lomazzo, who, in the Idea del Teinpio della Pittura,'^
writes enthusiastically of the composition, as by the hand of an excellent
master of perspective, "the noble Vincenzo Foppa, a Milanese " ; and though
some attempt was made later to ascribe the fresco to Bramante, nearly all
writers of any authority—Torre, Latuada, Albuzzio, Bianconi, and many more
concur in assigning it to Vincenzo. It was in the first chapel on the left,
dedicated to St. Sebastian in S. Maria di Brera/ and its position is described
1 For this building see Fe, Storia, etc., nelle Vie di Brescia, VII, p. 6.
- In such difficult questions as the chronology of a painter's undated works finality of
judgment is rarely possible, and to argue from merely individual impressions would be
futile. All that has been attempted throughout this book is to suggest probable dates,
leaving the illustrations to speak for themselves. From this point of view therefore it
seemed desirable to facilitate the closest possible comparison of the two works by
placing them side by side.
2 Giraudon, No. 749
; Ricci, op. cit.
* p. 108.
i
Latuada, V, 265.