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

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1 78 VINCENZO FOPPA
beneath the pilaster with carved figures in niches of the framework, we have :
(i) the Decollation of St, John Baptist; then follows, beneath the full-length
figure of the same saint, (2) the banquet of Herod ; (3) the Adoration of the
Magi under the central panel of the Madonna ;
on either side of this are two
small panels (4 and 5) containing the Arms of Giuliano della Rovere—the oak
tree surmounted by the cardinal's hat ; beneath the full-length figure of
St. John the Evangelist we have (6) the saint in Patmos ; and (7) St. John
about to be lifted up to heaven—the tomb, from which issue golden rays, is
seen to the right of the altar, and near it is the saint kneeling on clouds.
In the general scheme of the compositions and in many individual types
and motives^ these panels show great affinity with the works of Foppa and
his bottega. The executioner in the panel of the Decollation, the page with
the head of St. John Baptist in the banquet of Herod, the young man about
to mount his horse in the retinue of the Three Kings, and many incidents in
the composition of the Adoration of the Magi, are closely connected with the
types, figures, and motives of Foppa ; the treatment and technique of the
brocaded stuffs, the design and colouring of the carpet covering the steps of
the dais in
the banquet of Herod, and numerous other particulars link these
panels with the master, but in execution they fall far below the level of his art
and can only be regarded as products of his workshop.
On the 5th of August, 1490, Vincenzo inscribed the central composition
as follows :
ANNO SRLVTIS I49O DIE VAVCjVSTIIVLEPS OSTIENCARDS
, P-AOVINCVLA/^AIORA- NITENTVICENaV5 PINXIT
and five days later Lodovico Brea signed his name upon the large panel
on the right side with St. John the Evangelist :
" Ludovicus Brea Niciesis
pinxit hac parte 1490 die X augusti coplecta."
This, the best preserved of all
the compositions,^ has little connection in style with the other large panels,
but shows the hand of a painter who has much in common with Bergognone,
and who, like that master, was attracted by the softer side of Foppa's art
rather than by its more severe and virile qualities.
For fifty years the picture remained in its place over the High Altar ;
but in 1542 the Government declared it imperative that the defences of
'
The fact that Brea's panel, which was subjected, we assume, to the same treatment
as the remainder of the altarpiece, has come down to us in so good a state of preservation
confirms us in the belief that there must have been some defect either in
the mediums used by Foppa or in
his manipulation of the colours, which has resulted
in the deterioration and decay which we so frequently have to deplore in his works.
- Brea, when he collaborated with Foppa, was already a mature artist ; a signed
work by him is known of 1475 (AHzeri, II, 276).