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

202 VINCENZO FOPPA
Benedictines were transferred to S. Simpliciano. The latter carried with them
all they could lay their hands on, and their successors, the Frati Somaschi,
were for years reduced to the greatest poverty. Money was urgently needed
for the most ordinary items of church furniture, and though some account was
apparently kept of the receipts and expenses, it is probable that many works
of art were sold to meet current expenses without further comment. Not the
slightest clue as to the fate of the Rossi altarpiece has thus far been found in
the Milanese Archives, though the most minute details relating to the chapel
and its transformation into a baptistery are preserved there, together with a
great number of documents relating to the history and administration of the
church.*
The agents of wealthy foreigners were constantly in Italy in these years,
and often bought up the entire contents of churches and palaces ;
at some
time unknown to us the altarpiece of the Rossi Chapel was acquired for Mr.
Solly, an English banker living at Berlin, whose agents had been so active
that when in 182 1 his collection was sold to the Prussian Government it contained
no fewer than 2,500 pictures. The Pieta thus found its way into the
Berlin Gallery, and though in the Solly Collection it
had been rightly ascribed
to Foppa, it was strangely enough relegated by the Director of that day to
the early Milanese school, and as such we find it in Waagen's catalogue of
"835." The present distinguished Director, who wrote of it in the Prussian
Jahrbuch,^ rectified this error and ascribed it to Foppa, though apparently he
did not consider it to be entirely by the hand of the master. Owing to its
injured condition it had been removed from the gallery, and for many years
was not accessible to the public. In 1894 it was photographed by Hanfstaengl,
a fact not without importance, since it preserves the composition as it was
before the recent restoration ; a comparison between this photograph and the
picture which now hangs in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum and is ascribed to
Foppa, is instructive and interesting, and renders further comment needless.
A curious mistake was made by Caffi, who, being unaware of the existence
of the Berlin Pieta and of its identity with the altarpiece of the Rossi Chapel,
applied Albuzzio's description to a totally different picture of the same subject
which in 1872 suddenly appeared at Milan in the collection of Signor
Cavalleri, and on which he bestowed the name of Foppa.* We have no
certain knowledge respecting the former history of this picture, but, in consequence
presumably of Caffi's article, it was authoritatively stated that it
came from S. Pietro in Gessate.
' Arch, di Stato, S. Pietro in Gessate, Chiese, Comuni, Busta No. 1,146!.
2 P. 133, No. 44.
3 Vol. VII, p. 226 and foil.
* Arte in Italia^ 1872, p. 77.