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

I90
VINCENZO FOPPA
to claim the money from a debtor to the Commune.
Foppa, however, having
failed to obtain the money from this source, it was now decided that a bill for
the amount, I.12 s.io, should be drafted in Vincenzo's favour. On July 16 he
received the money, and the fact was recorded in the Bulletario della Citta,' a
volume in which all such receipts and statements of accounts were entered ;
Zamboni repeatedly quotes from this book, but no trace of these important
records is now to be found in any of the Brescian Archives.
There is no reason to suppose that the decision of the municipal authorities
to dismiss Master Vincenzo had in it anything of a personal character ;
nor is it to be inferred that Foppa had proved himself unworthy of his
honourable post or had forfeited the good opinion of his fellow-citizens.^ If
we consider the wording of the resolution of May 15 (Doc. No. 62)— not
independently, but in relation to the other measures passed at that meeting of
the Council—it is clear that it was of a general character dictated by the
financial embarrassments of the Commune. At this meeting the question
of reducing the ordinary expenditure was discussed, and it was proposed
not only to stop Foppa's salary (such an outlay being doubtless regarded as a
superfluous luxury), but also to cut down the monthly allowance of the excisemen
of the milling duties^ from eight lire to six, and to reduce the stipend
of the Communal Chaplain of S. Maria dei Miracoli from five lire to one
ducat per month. There is no doubt, therefore, that Foppa was deprived of
his principal source of income not from any fault of his, but in consequence
of a general revision of the Government balance sheet undertaken with a view
to retrenchment. The loss to the painter was serious, but for the Brescian
Government it was an absolute necessity ; the resources of the exchequer
being taxed to their utmost capacity to defray the imposts levied by the
Venetian Republic, then at war with Charles VIII of France. Venice, to
defend herself against the invader, had entered into an alliance on March 31,
1495, with the Emperor, the Duke of Milan, the Pope, and the King of
Sicily, and on July 6 of the same year the French King was totally defeated
by the allied forces at Fornovo, on the River Taro. All subjects of the
Republic, including also the Brescians, were forced to submit to an increased
burden of taxation, and the impoverished state to which the Government
coffers at Brescia must have been reduced by these war taxes is evident, if
1 Zamboni, p. 32, note 48 ; Brognoli, 245, note 64.
2 Capriolo's reference to Foppa in the first edition of his History (1505) as "a
second Apelles whose figures seemed almost to live and breathe " proves that the
painter continued to be highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens. The historian ignores
the fact of his dismissal, though he states that he had been "engaged at the public
expense as an ornament to the city" (Bk. XII, p. Ixxx).
^ Officiali sul Dazio della Macina.