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

Chap. VII. ALTARPIECE FOR MANFREDO FORNARI i6i
The head of the Madonna is absolutely identical in character with that of
the Virgin in the altarpiece of the Brera and in the polyptych of S. Maria di
Castello at Savona, with which we shall deal later. With the last-named
work' this panel is in closest agreement throughout in the type and drawing
of the Infant Saviour, in the character and form of the hands, in the scheme
of the drapery and arrangement of the folds. The form of the throne closely
resembles that in the Brera polyptych, the low shell-like ornament recalling the
decoration of the S. M. di Castello altarpiece, as well as that of many other
works proceeding from the school of Foppa,'- The donor Manfredo Fornari
is very awkwardly placed, his body being half hidden by the twisted column
of the frame—a position so strange that we might almost be tempted to
think
that the composition may have been planned originally to contain the
Madonna and Child only, and that the introduction of the donor was an
afterthought.
The saints on either side, SS. John Baptist and Jerome in full-length, and
the two figures in half-length above, show an intimate connection with the
models of Foppa in the Portinari Chapel, in the Brera altarpiece, and in the
ancona of S. Maria di Castello at Savona ; the St. John Baptist being almost
identical in pose with the saint in the last-named picture, and in gesture with
same saint in the Brera fresco of 1485.
That Foppa planned the whole composition appears certain ; but it is
unlikely from the aspect of some of these panels, which in part are careless in
treatment and poor in drawing and expression, that he executed them all
himself. At that moment, as we shall see immediately, the painter's circumstances
and surroundings were the reverse of favourable, owing to financial
embarrassments and to the strained relations then existing between himself
and certain of his friends whom he had counted among his most intimate
associates at Genoa and Pavia. This condition of affairs doubtless affected
his art unfavourably to some extent, and forced him to employ the services
of an assistant in finishing the work for Manfredo Fornari. Who that
assistant was we cannot tell ; the names of many painters are known to us
with whom Foppa was artistically connected during his sojourn in Liguria,
but with the exception of Bertolino della Canonica, whose workshop, as we
saw, he shared at Genoa, and of Lodovico Brea, who was his assistant in
altarpiece for the cathedral at Savona, we are unable to point to any artists
whose collaboration with Foppa can be definitely proved.^ In all probability
' See p. 172 and foil.
^ Compare also drawings by Jacopo Bellini, especially Ricci, Nos. 13 and 79.
^ Dr. W. Suida {Genua, p. 75) refers to this picture as a proof of how closely other
painters imitated Foppa, and his remark that it "bears the name of an otherwise unknown
Manfredo" might almost lead us to infer that he regarded Manfredo as the
the