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

240 VINCENZO FOPPA
and Bernardino de' Rossi must certainly be rejected ; but it is not without
interest to remember that Leonardo Vidolenghi was at this period working in
S. Tommaso (for which church, as we saw, this altarpiece was painted) and
that he is the only artist of whose connection with Matteo Bottigella we have
documentary evidence,' though the few paintings at present known by
Vidolenghi are not sufficient to enable us to identify his hand in this work
with any certainty.
To Foppa, Dr. Frizzoni, as already stated,^ ascribes the Annunciation in
the Borromeo Collection at Milan on account of its similarity to the Annunciation
at Arcore. Crowe and Cavalcaselle considered it was by Zenale
following the "early manner of Bramantino." ^ The connection with Foppa
is of course undeniable, and that this picture was founded upon the much
earlier example at Arcore there can be no doubt; but as we have not been able
to recognize the hand of the master himself in this panel, which appears to be
much disfigured by repainting, we have not included it in the list of his works,
though we give an illustration in order that it may stand on its own merits
and speak for itself.^
A small Holy Family in the Sessa Collection at Milan is ascribed to Foppa,
but is certainly unworthy of his name. Some connection with him is discernible
in the head of the Madonna, in the treatment of the drapery about her
head, of the low canopy beneath which she stands adoring the Infant Saviour,
who lies upon a parapet before her, and in the touch of the bushes in the
landscape, but in other respects this picture shows little affinity with the
master, who could hardly be held responsible for the wooden and lifeless drawing
of the badly proportioned Child.
1
S&& I migliori dipinti di Pavia, by R. Maiocchi, p. 49.
2 Chap. V, p. 132, note 2. ' II, p. 37.
'^
^ Dr. Suida, in Repertoniim, 1902, p. 342, attributes it to an anonymous painter
between Zenale and Foppa ;
cf. also Jacobsen {Repert., 1901), who ascribes it to Foppa.
^ A Madonna with angels in a rose garden adoring the Infant Saviour, in the
collection of Mr. Kaupe at Pallanza, has recently been ascribed to Foppa by a Milanese
connoisseur, on account of a connection which he detected between this panel and the Paradise
picture belonging to Cav. Noseda at Milan. We are not acquainted with the picture at
Pallanza, but judging from a small photograph which the owner was kind enough to let
us see, we should certainly hesitate to ascribe it to the master himself or to bring it into
line with the beautiful early work in the Noseda Collection ;
for though we are unable
to speak of the painting of the details, which according to the owner are finished with
the
utmost care, or of the colouring and quality of the picture, the general character of
the composition as seen in the photograph makes it clear that it can have had nothing to
do with Vincenzo Foppa. Behind the Madonna is seen St. Joseph, a somewhat incongruous
addition in a picture of this class, and the figure moreover is so awkwardly
placed that we venture to think it could not have belonged originally to the composition.
The picture came from a church at Ponte S. Pietro, near Bergamo.