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

i62
VINCENZO FOPPA
the two works for the Cathedral of Savona and the Certosa of Loreto were
undertaken simultaneously, like those at Pavia for the Church of S. Giacomo
and the Chapel of the Ducal Palace ;
the smaller altarpiece for the Certosa
being completed first, and the other being brought to a standstill owing to the
painter's sudden departure from Liguria.
In this year, 1489, serious disagreements occasioned by financial troubles
arose between Foppa and Bertolino della Canonica, with whom, as we saw,
he had for years lived on friendly terms, in spite of occasional differences.
Bertolino had by this time attained to a high position at Genoa ;
he was
head of the Painters' Guild in 1481,^ and about 1477 had married an heiress of
Foppa, on the
the Doria family, Donna Violantina, daughter of Carlo Doria.-
Other hand, as we gather from more than one document, was not prospering ;
he was often out of favour with his employers, owing to his failure, either
through lack of time or energy, to fulfil his engagements, and was constantly
in money difficulties.
In the spring of 1489 his misfortunes came to a climax.
Having completed the altarpiece for Manfredo Fornari on April 9, he quitted
Savona for Genoa, intending perhaps to proceed with a work which he had
undertaken to execute there for the Dominican Church of S. Maria di Castello ;
but he had scarcely set foot in the city when Bertolino sued him for the payment
of certain old outstanding debts. Foppa was either unable to discharge
these debts to the full, or evinced a disposition to deny his liability and to
dispute the point with Bertolino ; in any case, the latter, suspecting that
Vincenzo was contemplating flight as a means of evading his creditor, availed
himself of a section in the Genoese Statutes' to lay an information against
Foppa before the magistrate, who forthwith, to prevent his flight and preserve
the rights of his creditor, issued a warrant for his arrest. This action on the
part of Bertolino and the Genoese authorities was vigorously denounced by
Foppa's friends, and among them was Bartolomeo d' Amico, who in order to
obtain the immediate release of the great master at once became bail for him.
Owing either to a direct appeal from Foppa, or to the intervention of Bartopainter.
There is not the slightest doubt, however, that the incription refers to the
donor, and we think it equally certain that the picture itself is, in part at least, by
the hand of Foppa, who having undertaken the commission from Manfredo Fornari
deputed some other painter to assist him in the work.
1 Libro I deir Arte della Pittura 7iella Citta di Genova.
-
Alizeri, II, 392.
^ "Statuta et decreta Communis Genuas [fol. 37 tergo, Lib. II, cap. i]. Ut debitor
suspectus detineatur ad instantiam creditoris per magistratum.
" Quandocumque apparuerit quod debitor sit suspectus teneatur quilibet magistratus
personam illius debitoris suspect! creditor! deliberare et facere incarcerari. Nee possit
ipse magistratus ipsum debitorem . . . detentum relaxare . . . nisi idoneam cautionem
ipse debitor praestiterit . . . de se personaliter praesentando tantum et non per