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

Chap. VIII. ALTARPIECE OF S. MARIA GUALTIERI 193
had commissioned the altarpiece. But seemingly a certain sum of money on
which they had reckoned for defraying the cost of the work was not forthcoming
and the Canons were consequently in arrear in paying their creditors.
Foppa hereupon appealed to the Vicar-General of the Episcopal Court at
Pavia, and with his assistance succeeded in obtaining an injunction restraining
the removal of the pictures in
Siro's workshop until such time as payment for
them should have been made in full. Subsequently the Chapter came to an
understanding with Siro by which they undertook to satisfy Foppa's claims,
and all difficulties being thus removed, Siro was able to proceed with the
work of setting up and finishing the altarpiece, though we know that it was
not actually delivered to the donors until the summer of 1501.'
On December 13, 1499, in the Audience Hall of the Episcopal Palace at
Pavia, Foppa in person received from Francesco Alasia 78 lire imp. in full
and complete payment of 106 lire imp., the sum due for his paintings. A
study of these documents relating to the altarpiece of S. Maria Gualtieri
shows that the cost of carving the work amounted to 16 ducats or 64 lire imp.
This sum was paid to Giovanni Formenti by Siro, who out of the 40 ducats
assigned to him by the Canons had to defray the cost of the woodwork and
carvings ;
his own remuneration for gilding, painting, and setting up the whole
work only amounting to 24 ducats or 96 lire imp. The six figures painted
by Foppa with the predella came, as we said, to 106 lire imp. ;
the total cost
was therefore 266 lire imp., a sum considerably below the 300 lire which the
Canons had originally proposed to expend upon this work.
These records also seem to prove that Foppa's paintings must have been
finished in 1498. On July 13, 1497 (Doc. No. 66), we find the woodwork
had only just been completed by the carver Formenti, who agreed to let the
work stand for three months in order to test its quality. It is therefore
impossible that June, 1497, should have been the limit for the altarpiece to
have been "finished throughout,"^ according to the agreement between the
Canons and the painter Siro. It seems more probable that June, 1498, was
the actual date of its completion ; for we must not be misled by the second
part of Doc. No. 70, from which it might be inferred that the amount to
be paid to Foppa for his paintings was only agreed upon in 1499, an inference
which would naturally lead to the further conclusion that Foppa only executed
the work in that year. But this, as we know from the document of October
30, was not the case. The agreement relating to the payment of the sum of
*
See the note to Doc. No. 70.
^ For neither Foppa nor Siro would have been likely to have finished their share
of the altarpiece until all risk of the woodwork proving defective was past. Moreover,
the painters were not paid until some years later, a further indirect proof that the work
was not completed in the summer of 1497.
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