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

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282 VINCENZO FOPPA
him up to May, 1515.^ By October, 1516, he was certainly dead, as allusion is then
made to his heirs, though the actual date of his death is not stated."
Taking then 1427 as the year of his birth and 1516 as the date of his death, Foppa
would have attained to the ripe age of eighty-nine; the name "Vincenzo Vecchio,"
bestowed upon him by the Anonimo, was therefore by no means inappropriate.
Note 3. Vincenzo son of Giovanni da Bagnolo identical
WITH Vincenzo Foppa'
The name of Vincenzo's father was Giovanni, as we know from numerous documents,*
and an entry in the Libro d' Estimo at Brescia of 1498 proves that he came from
Bagnolo, which lies on the River Mella eight miles from Brescia. The entry states that
in this year, 1498, Vincenzo the painter, the son of the late Giovanni of Bagnolo, was
living in a house in the first quarter of S. Alessandro, and in the index of this volume
his name is entered as Vincenzo da Bagnolo. At first sight there would seem nothing
to connect this Vincenzo da Bagnolo with Foppa, but a closer study of the records leads
us to the conclusion that the two must be identical. In all the Libri d' Estimo prior to
that of 1498 there is no Vincenzo of Bagnolo, and no painter indeed of the name of
Vincenzo. The registers were kept somewhat irregularly, and towards the close of the
fifteenth century there is a gap between the years i486 and 1498. About 1490 Foppa
returned to Brescia with his family and settled there for the remainder of his life, and his
name would therefore appear for the first time in the official register of 1498. From the
rent and account books of the first quarter of S. Alessandro, preserved in the archives of
that church, we gather that he had bought a house in that quarter at some period
prior to 1502 and that he lived there up to the time of his death. ^ No other painter
Vincenzo is mentioned in Brescian records to whom this entry could apply. That it
could refer to Vincenzo Civerchio, who was also working at Brescia between 1493 and
1504, is out of the question, for Civerchio in documents of this date is always called
" Vincencius de Crema," and moreover we know from the same register of 1498 that he
was then living in a totally different part of the town, i.e. in the fourth ward of the
quarter of S. Faustino, as will be seen by the following extracts from the register :
Estimo 1498, fol. 120:
Estimo 1498, fol. 168:
" Quadra quarta S. Faustini. "Quadra prima S. Alex**"
Vincentius de Crema, pictor."
Vincentius q. Johannis de Bagnolo, pictor."
If then Giovanni of Bagnolo was the father of our painter his Brescian origin is
absolutely proved, and for the following reasons we consider it most probable that he
* See chap, vni and Appendix II, A, Docs. Nos. 62, 63, 64, 68, 71-74. The fact is confirmed
by the Pavian Docs. Nos. 69, 70, 75, Appendix II, A, and Nos. 1-14 in Appendix II, B.
- A further proof that the death of Foppa took place about this period is afforded by Doc.
No. 78, from which we gather that in 15 17 Foppa's nephew and heir Paolo Caylina paid
numerous legacies and bequests in execution of his uncle's will.
' See too chap, viii, p. 191 and note 3, and ix, p. 222.
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See Nos. 2, 16, 18, 22, 25, 35, 42, etc. ' Page 223 and foil.