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

156 VINCENZO FOPPA
We have no information as to the subject of this altarpiece, but as the
chapel was dedicated to St. Anne and St. Stephen, it is probable that in the
centre was represented the Madonna and Child with St. Anne,' and that
among the saints St. Stephen would certainly have found a place. Lazarus
the patron of Lazzaro Doria, and St.
Bartholomew, to whom the Certosa was
dedicated, may also have been among the saints depicted.
As to its ultimate fate we have no clue ; but at the time of the suppression
of the monastery we must assume that the altarpiece was removed by the
patrons of the chapel, for it was evidently no longer there in 1859, at which
date the chapel had become the property of a Count Sassi ; the building
being then in a ruinous condition, he had all the marbles removed to his
palace at S. Pierdarena. The Doria altarpiece must unfortunately be included
in the list of works which we know to have been executed by Foppa, but
which have disappeared leaving no trace behind them.
Of the existence of four such works, executed entirely or in part by the
master between 1466 and 1489, we have the clearest possible evidence, namely,
the Majestas for Monza of 1466, the ancona for Pavia of 1476, and the altarpieces
for the Spinola and Doria families, probably executed between 1477 and
1489 ; but not a single vestige of any of them, so far as we know, exists. On
the other hand, we have several pictures by Foppa, evidently fragments of
large altarpieces, which it has not been possible at present to bring into line
with any polyptych known to have been painted by him. One of these is the
Annunciation, already mentioned, acquired by the late Signor Vittadini ; a
second is the figure of St. Paul in the collection of Cav. Aldo Noseda
at Milan. From its appearance it is evident, as Senatore Beltrami and
Dr. Frizzoni have shown, that the figure must originally have occupied the
upper tier of a great altarpiece like that for S. M. delle Grazie at Bergamo,
and must have been placed on the right of the spectator.^ The panel was
bought by the Milanese dealer Brianzi from a family in the province of
Bergamo, a fact which leads to the supposition that the polyptych of which it
formed part may have been painted by Foppa for some church in Bergamesque
territory ; but absolutely nothing is known of its earlier history. It was first
ascribed to Foppa by its present possessor, an attribution completely justified
by the appearance of the panel and now universally accepted. The correct-
1 It is possible that a painting in a church at Spotorno in Liguria, representing
St. Anne with the Madonna and Child on her knee, may have been inspired by the
Doria altarpiece. This subject, so common in early German art, is not very frequently
met with in Italy in fifteenth century paintings, hence the fact that a composition of this
description exists in Liguria at no great distance from Rivarolo is not without interest,
and might point to some connection with Foppa's lost work in the Certosa.
"
Arte, 1899, p. 319.