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

148 VINCENZO FOPPA
pronounced it to be the work of Foppa, an attribution now very generally
accepted.' The picture when removed from the church to the Castello
Museum was in a very bad condition, disfigured by repaints, covered with
opaque varnish, and black and heavy in tone. So long as it remained in this
state it was felt that no true estimate could be formed of the painting nor
could the authorship of Foppa be regarded as beyond dispute. In 1902 it
was therefore removed to the studio of Prof. Cavenaghi, and the operations
conducted by him led to the most surprising results, of which Dr. Frizzoni
gave an interesting account in the Perseveranza of January 7, 1904. Professor
Cavenaghi discovered that former restorers, not content with copious repainting,
had taken extraordinary liberties, suppressing some important
details altogether and adding others in the most flagrant manner. The
presentment of the bearded St. Sebastian, whereby the "Christian Apollo"
was transformed into a man of mature years^— a deviation from the
method of representation usually followed by Italian painters at this date— is
now proved to be entirely due to some late restorer. This travesty of the art
of the Brescian master has now been unmasked ;
the quality of the whole
composition, the plastic roundness of form, the expression of the features,
the treatment of line, as well as other points already mentioned, and more
especially the strikingly characteristic landscape, justify the attribution of this
altarpiece to Vincenzo in every particular.'
At the same time it must be noted that the effect of the picture is greatly
marred by the quality of the flesh tones, to which allusion was made in
chapter v ;
the deterioration of the colours is even more marked here than in the
Brera angel, the restoration of the flesh tints having only served unfortunately
to accentuate these inherent defects.
In the two works which we have just been discussing, a certain connection
with Mantegna and Paduan tendencies is perceptible. That Vincenzo must
have been acquainted with this great master during his years of training under
Jacopo Bellini there can, as already observed, be no doubt, yet his earliest
known works have little or no connection with Mantegna ; the Noseda picture,
1 Cf. Jacobsen, in L'Arte, 1901, p. 299. For a contrary opinion see Von Hadeln,
in Studien ziir Kunstgeschichte des Auslandes, Heft 48, 1906, p. 41.
- As such he is represented in the well-known mosaic of S. Pietro in Vinculi in
Rome, and not infrequently also in German art.
See some interesting remarks on the
subject of the bearded St. Sebastian by M. Em. Theodore in Monies a enseignes, etc.,
p. 6 and foil. Cf. also Von Hadeln, op. at., and F. Burger, in Repertorinm, 1908, p. 179.
^ In the private chapel of Count Borromeo at Cesano Maderno is a small panel
representing a St. Sebastian mounted on a pedestal and bound to a marble column,
in composition and type closely resembling the central figure in the Castello picture.
is the work of a late copyist.
It