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

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CHAPTER X
PAINTERS TAUGHT OR INFLUENCED BY FOPPA
Foppa's claims to be called an architect—His treatise—His art— His influence, Milan
and Pavia—On Piedmontese painters— His influence in Liguria—At Brescia
Paolo Zoppo—Vincenzo Foppa the younger, a myth— Paolo Caylina and Ferramola—The
transitional group of painters at Brescia—Conclusion.
By some earlier writers Foppa has been described as an architect, and as the
author of certain treatises on ^natomy and other subjects, statements to which
we must now briefly refer. That'f?^ was an architect seems proved by the fact
that when he returned to Brescia it was expressly stated in the minutes of the
Council of December i8, 1489, that he was to teach painting and architecture
in the city. Lomazzo in his Rime' enumerates among the principal architects
" II gran Foppa," ^ but, unfortunately, we are unable to connect his name with
any known building, nor do any of our documents, beyond the one just
alluded to, speak of him except as a painter, and we must assume that his
talents in this direction were principally theoretical. Nor have we any more
certain information with regard to the treatises which Foppa is supposed to
have written, our only authority again being Lomazzo, a writer so diffuse
and inaccurate in his statements that little reliance can be placed on his words.
In the Idea del Tempio, p. 16, he says that Vincenzo Foppa wrote a treatise
on the proportions of the human figure and of the horse, "delle quali ne fu
anco inventore, " and on p. 150, referring to the master's excellence in perspective,
he links his name with that of the greatest architect of the day, Bramante,
who, as we have seen, was his contemporary for many years at Milan, observing
that under Foppa and Bramante " Zenale, Buttinone, Bramantino, and others
became famous."
In his Trattato^ he states that he intends publishing a treatise written by
Vincenzo Foppa, containing "a number of sketches done with the pen,"
of which Albert Diirer later made considerable use for his own treatise ; and
> Dei Grotteschi, Lib. H, Architetti, p. 137.
^ See also his allusion to Foppa in the Trattato, in his chapter on buildings in
general (Lib. VI, p. 405).
^ Lib. V, cap. xxi, p. 275, ed. 1584.
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