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

234 VINCENZO FOPPA
for the relatively small number of existing paintings of the Lombard school
which bear his name. Among the number we find certain works which
are closely connected with the master himself, and others which are more
or less related to his school, while some have no claims whatever to his name.
It would be obviously impossible and altogether outside the scope of this
volume to attempt a categorical list of all known works ascribed to Foppa
in the galleries and private collections of Europe and America, even though
such a list, for the reasons already stated, would probably be shorter than in
the case of any other great Italian master ; but we have chosen a few of
the most representative specimens of these three classes of "attributed"
works in which the influence of the leader of the school upon his followers is
seen in varying degrees.
Among works of the school of Foppa which some critics ascribe to
the master himself, the first place must certainly be assigned to a very
interesting canvas in the Camera di Commercio at Brescia, representing the
Madonna and Child enthroned between the patron saints of Brescia, Faustino,
and Giovita. In many particulars the connection with Foppa noticeable
in this picture is so close, as to lead us to infer that it may have been founded
upon one of the master's own works. Though very late in date, and though so
much injured in parts that much of its original character has been obliterated,
it nevertheless shows a very remarkable affinity with a work of Foppa's
earlier period, the altarpiece in the Brera. This is more especially noticeable
in the fine figure of S. Faustino, who stands on the right of the Madonna,^ and
vividly recalls the St. Anthony of the Brera polyptych ; it is apparent also in
the deacon S. Giovita, who reminds us in type of one of the angels, and
in certain other particulars of the St. Vincent of that altarpiece, namely, in
the pose and gesture of the figure, and more especially in the distinctive form
and position of the hand. This characteristic, which may be regarded as one
of the distinguishing marks of Foppa's workshop, is repeated by the painter
of this altarpiece in the hands of all the other figures : in those of the Madonna
and of S. Faustino, who receives from her the palm of martyrdom, and in the
hand of the Infant Saviour, who turns to place the palm in that of S. Giovita.
Further removed from Foppa himself is the figure of the Madonna, in which
the weakness of the drawing is very apparent, though here also the connection
with a Foppesque prototype is undeniable ; the same may be said of the
figure of the Infant Saviour, though on comparing it with the Bambino of
the Brera altarpiece, or with the Holy Child in the banner of Orzinuovi, the
Bergamo, constantly refers to Capriole and Calepino as the authors from whom he
derived much of his information—two writers who, as we saw, speak of Foppa in very
laudatory terms and class him with the greatest artists of the day.
^ The left of the spectator.