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

Chap. IX. SCHOOL PICTURES :
CAMERA
DI COMMERCIO 235
palpable inferiority of the example at Brescia to those just named, is very
evident. The connection with Foppa is also seen in the subordinate details
of the picture : for instance, in the white damask canopy of beautiful quality
and design, which in part is fairly well preserved, and in the carpet covering
the step of the throne, which in pattern and colouring recalls the tappeto in
the Brera fresco of 1485, the carpet in the predella of the Savona altarpiece,
and also the border of the processional banner at Orzinuovi ;
it is certainly
the only work now existing at Brescia which can be ascribed with absolute
certainty to the immediate school of Foppa.^
Of the earlier history of the picture we have no direct information, but
was placed in the Sala dei Mercanti' in 1596, as we gather from the inscription
at the bottom of the canvas :
" Deiparae Virginis Imaginem Hanc Consules
E Tenebris Ac Situ Erutam Conspicuo In Loco Posuere Ut In Posterum
Tarn Oculis Quam Animis Piorum Illucescat M D IIII C."^
Considering the subject, it would seem not unreasonable to surmise that
the picture was painted for some church or oratory dedicated to the patron
saints of Brescia, though the clause of the inscription which states that it
was taken from "a place of darkness and evil odours" would seem at first
sight to preclude the possibility of the picture having been over the altar of a
church. But a closer examination of the facts explains the matter. We
know that in 1532 a picture of the same subject as the one we are discussing
was hanging over the altar of the little Oratory of S. Faustino
in Riposo^ sotto Porta Brusata. From a volume in the municipal archives at
Brescia, Istrumenti Municipali (1529-37), we learn that on July 15, 1530, a
certain Pietro Tonini of the Val Trompia had been appointed to the guardian-
'
According to Paglia (autogr. MS., f. 70), the painter whom he calls "Foppa"
or " Paolo Foppa" (namely, Paolo Caylina, see p. 204, note 3), decorated the Oratory
of the Disciplina of S. Faustino with frescoes from the history of that saint and
of S. Giovita, and also painted the altarpiece, which this writer speaks of as a panel
picture, and in his first manner. Possibly the picture in the Camera di Commercio
may have been connected with these works by Vincenzo Foppa's nephew, who, as the
probable head of his uncle's workshop, would have carried on the traditions of his
school.
"
For the old Mercanzia and its relation to the present Camera di Commercio see
Fe, op. cit.,
IX, pp. 46, 58, and foil.
3
"This representation of the Virgin Mother of God the Consuls [of the Guild]
drew forth from a place of darkness and evil odours and placed in
it
a conspicuous position,
so that in the future both the eyes and the souls of the devout might thereby be
illumined."
*
So called because, when the bodies of the saints Faustino and Giovita were
translated from S. Afra (then S. Faustino ad Sanguinem) to S. Maria in Sylva (now
S. Faustino Maggiore), they rested here.