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

i86
VINCENZO FOPPA
his assertion, though we are bound to point out two facts : in the first place
that Foppa's wife, of the Brescian family of Caylina, would not have been
likely to have had as her dowry a house at Pavia ;' and in the second place
that the house owned by Foppa at Pavia was his own acquisition, for we know
that he bought house property there both in 1467 or 1468, and in 1483.- Foppa's
application was considered by the members of the Special Council and he was
granted leave of absence for one month. With regard to this document,
it should also be noted that the word "nolle" was formerly deciphered
"velle, " as though Foppa had applied for leave to go to Pavia not only on
account of the lawsuit, but also in order to execute paintings.
This, however,
is absolutely incorrect. In the original the word is "nolle," and it is clear
that Foppa, in petitioning the Council for leave of absence for one month,
wished to make it understood that this journey had nothing to do with his
profession,^ in order more readily to obtain their consent to his request. He
could scarcely have applied for leave to undertake work at Pavia, when,
according to the terms of his engagement at Brescia, it was expressly stated
that he was to live there and execute paintings in that city only. He did not,
however, make use of the permission at once, as we find him at Pavia on
November 11 (Doc. No. 59), by which time his leave of absence would have
expired had he left Brescia immediately after the resolution was passed. On
this day he appears in the Canonry of S. Invenzio as witness to a payment of
rent made by his friend Cristoforo Gazzaniga, and subsequently he himself pays
in person the "livello " for his house to the Hospital of S. Invenzio ; for though,
as we saw in chapter vi, page 141, he had the beneficial ownership of the house
in that parish, we know from many entries in the Pavian Archives that
there was a nominal charge upon it of one soldo per annum due to the
administrators of the hospital as owners of the fee.*
^ Zamboni's mistake may have originated in the fact that he had some vague knowledge
of a house which had come to Foppa through his wife, though this house, according
to Doc. 33, was the gift of the painter's mother-in-law, and was not at
Brescia, in the Contrada S. Agata. -
Chaps, in and vi.
Pavia, but at
^ " Et dicente aliquam picturas operam facere nolle " (stating that he would not
execute any paintings there).
* The first of these payments is made on November 10, 1487, by Vincenzo's son
Evangelista, on behalf of his
father, the master himself being then at Genoa (App. II
B, No. 4). On this occasion the sum paid is four soldi, being the amount due for
four years. After this it was paid annually, and the rate falling due on November 11
in each year, was paid with surprising punctuality either by one of Foppa's sons or
by the lawyer acting on his behalf. In addition to the documents relating to these payments
which we publish in the Appendix (A and B), we have records in the Pavian
Archives referring to it in the following years in the month of November : 1488, 1492,
1494. 1495. 1498, 1499, 1500, 1501, 1502, 1504, 1505, and 1506.