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

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Chap. VIII. THE PIETA, BERLIN GALLERY 195
ever, it was not designed to hang against a wall, but to stand free above the
High Altar, it was needful to enclose it in a "cassa," a case to protect it at
the sides and back. The sides of the case and those parts most seen were to
be painted in azure of good quality covered with stars in gold ; the back was
to be decorated with arabesques or any other design, the choice of which was
left to the painter (Item 7). Lastly, there was the curtain, which also formed
an integral part of the altarpiece, protected it from light and dust and was
drawn back on great festivals. This too was painted, and the subjects which
Giovanni Siro was ordered to represent upon it were : on the one side the
Almighty in glory holding the sphere, and on the other the Madonna with
St. Joseph adoring the Infant Saviour (Item 6).
After August 21, 1501, the date, as we saw,' when the completed altarpiece
was consigned by Giovanni Siro to the Canon Francesco Alasia, it
is never again alluded to in Pavian records and all further trace of it is lost
there is no mention of it in the report of the Apostolic Visitation of 1576, in
Bartoli's treatise in the eighteenth century, or in the works of any local writer.
We are therefore entirely ignorant of its ultimate history and fate, and may
pass on to the discussion of other works which, to judge by their appearance
and character, may, we venture to think, be ascribed to the later years of
Vincenzo Foppa's life. In this category we would include two well-known
examples—the Pieta or Lament over the Dead Body of Christ, in the Kaiser
Friedrich Museum at Berlin, and the Adoration of the Magi, in the English
National Gallery.
The Pieta came to the Berlin Gallery from the Solly Collection in the
early nineteenth century, but nothing was known of its former history.
We believe, however, that we are justified in identifying it with the altarpiece
of the first chapel on the left close to the west door in the Church of
S. Pietro in Gessate at Milan.
This chapel was founded by a member of the De' Rossi family of Parma,
who from being for some years a determined opponent of Milanese rule
became, after 1448, a staunch adherent of Francesco Sforza and in 1473
settled at Milan. A reference to the chapel in a Bull of Pope Sixtus IV
of February 4, 1475," proves that it was already completed at this date.
Five years later, according to Puccinelli's chronicle of the Church of S.
Pietro in Gessate, it was restored, ^ or more probably embellished and decorated,
by Agostino de' Rossi. Wherein this decoration consisted we cannot
' Note to Doc. No. 70.
- Published by Puccinelli, Chronicon Monasterii SS. Petri et Pauli de Glaxiate,
p. 129, ed. 1655. The original document is preserved in the Archives of the Orfanotrofio
di S. Pietro in Gessate.
^ Puccinelli, p. 325.