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

174 VINCENZO FOPPA
so much in many parts that the details are almost obliterated ;
the original
colour has scaled off in places, and large portions have been entirely repainted
and modernized ; while the surface in many parts has been torn and
lacerated by nails. In its present position it is most difficult of access' and
examination, and the conditions of light prevailing in the chapel render all
attempts at photography a matter of great difficulty. Under these circumstances
no true estimate of the work is possible, and the impression it leaves
on the spectator is
both disappointing and unfavourable.
The figure of the Madonna in the central panel is closely allied to that of
though in quality and dignity of
the enthroned Virgin of the Brera altarpiece,
conception it falls short of that stately and impressive composition ; the
modelling of the features, the massive pillar-like neck, the drawing of the
hands, which are full of feeling and remarkably characteristic of Foppa, and
the details of the drapery are very similar in both works ; but the calm
serenity and quiet strength depicted on the countenance of the Brera
Madonna has given place here to an expression of profound melancholy and
abstraction. Unmindful of the donor, who kneels beside the throne, her
gaze is
riveted upon the book which lies open upon her knee, her spirit wholly
absorbed by what she reads, as though in these pages all that in the future
was to come upon her Divine Son was revealed to her.
The Infant Saviour, who turns to bless the kneeling Cardinal, has not the
solemn dignity which characterizes the Christ Child of the Castello Museum
at Milan ; neither has it the charm and natural action which we see in the
Bambino of the Brera picture ; nor the radiant and joyous expression of
the Child in the fresco of 1485 ; though in outward characteristics the Savona
altarpiece is more or less closely connected with all these works. ^ The air
of despondency and sadness which has communicated itself in some degree
to all the heads and broods like a shadow over the whole of this central
panel seems like the reflection of the painter's own temper of mind at
that time, when he had been forced to abandon for the moment all his
schemes for settling at Brescia and beginning work there under the most
favourable circumstances, and had been obliged instead to fulfil
the conditions
^
The oratory is always closed, except on Sundays and Fridays, when Mass is said
here, and on one day in
the confraternity.
the month, when a Requiem is sung for departed members of
^ We are unable to agree with the opinion expressed by Dr. Carotti {op. cit., p. 12),
that the crowns worn by the Madonna and the Infant Saviour were an integral part of
the altarpiece. They differ widely in quality and design from the crown of the Madonna
in the Brera altarpiece, which must always have formed part of the master's original
composition, whereas at Savona they appear to us disfiguring additions of later
date.