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

APPENDIXES
APPENDIX I
Note i.— Vincenzo's Origin
ViNCENZo FOPPA has been claimed as a compatriot by Milanese, Pavians, and
Brescians, but the documents now before us prove conclusively that he was of Brescian
birth.
The Milanese writer Lomazzo calls the painter "Vincenzo Foppa Milanese,"' so
also do Morigia, Picinelli, and Argelati, but no contemporary record supports this
view.
Among all the documents printed in Appendix II,
two only of any importance refer
to him as a Milanese, namely, the Pavian document of June 15, 1470 (No. 18), relating
to the rent of a house taken by Foppa at Pavia, and the Genoese document of July 10,
1489^ (No. 45), in both of which he is called " de Mediolano," though in the last-named
deed the description is qualified by the remark, " ut dicitur." It is easy to understand
how the mistake arose in this case. Vincenzo was employed during the best and most
fruitful years of his life in the Duchy of Milan, and was one of the most favoured and
renowned among the painters who worked for the Sforza between the years 1460 and
1480. The monks of S. Maria di Castello at Genoa, who in July, 1489, had the
paintings valued which Foppa had begun for their church, but never finished, knowing
that when he first came to Genoa in 1461, he had been specially recommended to the
authorities by the Duke Francesco Sforza (Doc. No. 4), and being probably aware that
in
later years he had become a citizen of Milan, would naturally have instructed their
notary to describe him as "of Milan, it is said."'
Writers like Morigia and Lomazzo, who could not have known Foppa personally
(Morigia was born in 1525, Lomazzo in 1538), but derived all their information about
him from others, were anxious in their zeal for the glory of Milan to claim him as a
compatriot, and being probably aware that he had been long resident in the Duchy,
* On p. 350 of his Trattato, Lomazzo speaks of Vincenzo da Brescia as admirable in the
treatment of " foliage " (decorative motives), but it is not certain whether this allusion applies to
Foppa.
2
In another Genoese document of June, 1485, referring to the painter Barbagelata, Foppa
is incidentally mentioned as Master Vincenzo of Milan (see pp. 133, 134, and Doc. No. 38).
^ Persons living in Milanese territory were indeed often designated "of Milan," even if not
natives of the city, but the addition " ut dicitur" shows that the monks knew little of the
circumstances of the painter's life.
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