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

262 VINCENZO FOPPA
Foppa's nephew, the painter Paolo Caylina, his sole heir at Brescia was
also his direct descendant in art, and might appropriately therefore have been
called the "younger Foppa." We know indeed from several Brescian sources
that he was occasionally referred to as Paolo Fophi* or Paolo Foppa,^ but we
have no absolutely authenticated works by him to give us any idea of his
manner of painting. We may reasonably conclude that one who was associated
with his uncle and who at times, as we know, acted as his representative,
would also have approached him in his art, but what is commonly ascribed
to the "younger Foppa" at Brescia has nothing whatever in common
with the work of Vincenzo Foppa il Vecchio. Such pictures as the Christ
bearing the Cross in S. Giovanni Evangelista, the Procession to Calvary
and the Last Supper in the Galleria Martinengo, the Annunciation and
the Martyrdom of SS. Nazaro e Celso, in the church dedicated to these
saints, and other examples in the churches of Brescia, are neither related to
one another nor to Vincenzo Foppa, and have not sufficient individual character
to admit of their being ascribed to any distinct master, so that " Brescian
school of the sixteenth century " seems the only classification possible. On
the other hand, a certain number of paintings at Brescia showing a close interconnection,
though evidently the work of diflPerent
hands, undoubtedly derive
from a common source and owe their origin to the dominant influence of one
or two masters. But the leader in this case was not Vincenzo Foppa.
Judging from the signed and dated paintings of Floriano Ferramola at Berlin
and Lovere, from his lunette over the west door of the Carmine at Brescia
and from other authenticated works, it might be inferred that it was his
influence which was in the ascendant in the city in the early years of the
sixteenth century and forms the connecting link between the era of Foppa ^
and that of Romanino* and Moretto ; and with the name of Ferramola
^ Among the entries of Paolo Caylina's payments he is once designated Paolo de
Fophi depentor (Libro di Cassa, Massaria I", anno 1539).
- Paglia, Giardino, etc., MSS. Querin., "Floriano Ferramola concorrente del
Foppa," "di Paolo Foppa," etc., ff. 76, 95, 97.
^ Civerchio may also have had some effect upon contemporary art, but he is not
traceable at Brescia itself after the early years of the sixteenth century, though he
returned there from time to time in later years, and executed work for churches in
Brescian
territory.
* We are unfortunately not acquainted with Romanino's earliest dated work, the
altarpiece representing the Pieta painted in 15 10 for S. Lorenzo at Brescia, and are
therefore unable to say what share this painter may have had in the development of
Brescian art in the first decade of the sixteenth century. Nor can we tell whether this
picture showed any connection with the school of Foppa. It was at one time in the
Manfrini palace at Venice, from whence it passed into the collection of Lord Wimborne
at Canford Manor ; beyond this we have been unable to trace it. From the minute