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

192 VINCENZO FOPPA
allotted to them. These panels, called *' figure grande," which constituted
the principal part of the altarpiece, were to occupy the six large spaces— " sei
campi grandi " —of the ancona, and had already been painted by Master
Vincenzo Foppa, together with the predella (*'le figure tute et banchetta ha
dipinto Maestro Vincentio "), and apparently he had painted them at Pavia in
the workshop of Giovanni Siro, for it is stated (Item ii of Doc. 69) that these
paintings were in the keeping of the last-named, " sono apresso del dicto
maestro Johanne Syllo " ;' the woodwork, with carvings and ornamentation,
was furnished by " Magistro Johanne, who is at present working in the
Castle " ("che sta de presenti in Castello, " Item 10), and who is in fact the
Pavian wood-carver Giovanni Formenti " (see Doc. 66). We said that apparently
Foppa painted this, his last Pavian work of which we have any record, in
the bottega of Giovanni Siro. The circumstances of the master's life at the
time render this probable ; for Foppa, having settled at Brescia, had no
longer a workshop of his own at
Pavia, and moreover we know that Siro was
in the habit of generously placing his bottega at the disposal of any of his
colleagues in art who might be in need of it. Thus we learn from a record of
October 30, 1506,' that Bernardino da Cotignola was one of those whom he
assisted in this way, and that the altarpiece commissioned from this lastnamed
painter by the foreign students of the University of Pavia for their
chapel in the Carmine was painted in Giovanni Siro's workshop in Porta
Marenga.*
The date when Foppa painted the six large figures and the predella for
the Church of S. Maria Gualtieri cannot be exactly determined, but it must
certainly fall between July 13, 1497, when Giovanni Formenti had finished
the woodwork, and October 30, 1499, at which date Foppa's work must have
been for some time completed, these paintings having already been the
subject of litigation, as we gather from Item 11. There can be little doubt
what caused the dispute. Foppa, having finished the paintings, applied for
payment to Francesco Alasia, the Canon representing the Chapter who
1 The name is spelt variously " Syllo," " Siro," and " Syro."
2 The earliest record we have of Giovanni Formenti is of November, 1493. He was
the pupil and son-in-law of Cristoforo Rocchi (see p. 170, note i), the celebrated Pavian
wood-carver and the first architect of the cathedral. Giovanni's brother Francesco also
followed the same profession, and was the pupil and assistant of another well-known
craftsman, Giov. Angelo Maino, to whom we have already alluded when speaking of
the cross for the Carmine (chap vii, p. 171, note i), and who in 1502 was commissioned to
carve the stalls for the lay brothers in the Certosa of Pavia.
3 Arch. Not. Pavia.
* The frame of this altarpiece was also executed by Giovanni Formenti, as we learn
from a document of September 29,
craftsman.
1505, the last record at present known relating to this