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

152 VINCENZO FOPPA
eighteenth century, been recased ; this had the effect of preserving the
frescoes and they are consequently in an unusually good condition. The St.
Francis receiving the stigmata is a work of profound feeling and admirable
modelling typical of Foppa in every particular, and recalling that other
St. Francis which we mentioned when speaking of the altarpiece in the Brera.
The power of seizing a moment of great psychological interest, of which
the Bergamo Crucifixion afforded so striking an example, is conspicuous in
the rendering of this Ecstasy of St. Francis. The finely characterized head
of the saint shows an intimate knowledge of the emotional side of human
nature, but is free from all trace of mawkish and exaggerated sentiment, the
deeper qualities of the mind being depicted with remarkable truth and
sincerity. From this point of view it is instructive to compare the composition
with Gentile Bellini's treatment of the same subject at Venice and with
Jacopo's version of it in his drawings. The St. John Baptist is a fine and
dignified figure, life-like in movement, expressive in type, and showing a
marked connection in composition with the St. John Baptist of the Savona
altarpiece, of which figure it was doubtless the prototype. A comparison
between the two is particularly interesting, for the Castello picture, being in an
unusually good state of preservation, shows us the master's original intention as
few other paintings of his are capable of doing, time and neglect having wrought
more havoc with the works of Foppa than with those of almost any other
Italian master ; while the figure of St. John Baptist at Savona, which when
first produced must have been in closest relation with this fresco, is now in the
last stages of ruin and decay. The Castello picture, in addition to its
strikingly Foppesque qualities of composition, form, and expression, reveals
such as the distinctive
the authorship of the master in numerous minor details,
shade of reddish lilac in the drapery, the drawing of the eyes and of the mouth,
the arrangement of the folds of the mantle, which though somewhat angular
are treated as in many of his works, the little stones in the foreground, which are
identical in form with those in the foreground of the St. Jerome at Bergamo,
and other particulars. Both this figure of St. John Baptist and its companion
the St. Francis seem undoubtedly by Foppa ; of the remaining three frescoes
from S. Maria del Giardino, two are certainly connected with Bramantino, and
the third— St. Anthony of Padua—which some critics are inclined to ascribe to
Foppa, is more probably of his school.^ The frescoes were all rescued from
the general ruin by Signor Prospero Loria, who superintended the work of
demolition, and presented them to the Museo Archeologico, from whence they
eventually found their way into the Castello Museum.
1 See Antonio Caimi, Cenni Storici del Miiseo Patrio di Archeologia, and Monger!,
L'Arte in Milano, p. 365. Dr. Suida {Oest. Jahrbuch, XXV, p. 48) considers that this
figure of St. Anthony shows a connection with the works of Donato Montorfano.