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

212 VINCENZO FOPPA
Noseda Collection, which might lead us to infer that the painter of these
angels was not unacquainted with that early work ; but in the main there is
little to connect any of the angels of the Versailles picture with Foppa himself.
In type these figures are totally unlike the models of the Brescian
master ; the peculiar form of cranium and elongated shape of face, the monotonous
drawing of the features, the empty expression, the uniformity in the
treatment of the hair, have nothing of his character ; but it is the absence of
all individuality and purpose in these heads which renders it practically certain
that this part of the picture could not have been composed or executed by
him. Of these five angels, who are all engaged in singing, only one seems
capable of emitting a sound, and all are lacking in that vitality and earnestness
of feeling which the master never fails to impart to his compositions.^
Nor is it possible to recognize the manner and the spirit of the Brescian
painter in the representation of the Infant Saviour or in the angel who kneels
beside Him, for neither in type, drawing, nor expression can we discern any
true connection with him. That the picture has been excessively repainted
there can be no doubt, and to this may be due in part the empty expression
noticeable in many of these heads, the smooth texture of the flesh, and the
very modern aspect of the two angels in the air," but it
cannot account satisfactorily
for the distinct evidence of two difi'erent hands which is perceptible
in this work. Are we to assume that it was left unfinished by Foppa and
completed at a later date ? or that the right side having been injured was
restored by another hand ? On the whole this last seems the most probable
solution, taking the inscription into consideration, for Foppa, who only signs
his pictures on rare occasions, and then not in the prominent manner which
we see here, would scarcely have appended his signature to an unfinished
fragment. At some date unknown the picture was transferred from panel to
canvas, a fact which may also help to explain the present condition of the
painting. Of its former history we know nothing, and though Brescian guidebooks
mention several pictures by Foppa in which this subject was treated, it
is impossible to identify it with any of them ; but that it must have been the
^ In the curious drawing of the lips, as seen in these angels, we have the exaggeration
of one of Foppa's characteristics, a trait noticeable in many of his works, beginning
with the angels of the Noseda picture. But whereas in Foppa's work the lines are
always full of vitality and expression, in the hands of this anonymous follower the type
has degenerated into lifeless imitation devoid of all
significance and character.
^ The figure on the hill, presumably intended to represent the shepherd receiving
the annunciation of the Saviour's birth, seems also to be a palpably later addition
replacing an earlier figure, and no doubt owes its origin to the era of restoration. Such
a method of representation is altogether out of harmony with the feeling of a painter
of the fifteenth or early sixteenth century.