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

286 VINCENZO FOPPA
This room, the Sala Capitolare, was still in existence in 1842, but was unfortunately
condemned by a committee of architects as unsafe, and, in spite of the protests of an
influential body of artists and connoisseurs of the day, was destroyed. Ambrogio
Nava, one of those who considered that the building might have been saved, wrote a
brief account of the
room,^ of which he gave an illustration,^ and mentioned that the
frescoes were executed in chiaroscuro and colours by Bergognone ; he also stated
that he had made copies of these paintings, but unfortunately his drawings, which
might have thrown light upon many points, have disappeared, and no information
relating to them is obtainable. The fact, however, that a writer of the first half of the
nineteenth century should have ascribed the frescoes to Bergognone leads us to conjecture
that they were probably good works of the Lombard school, and that the
painter Vincenzo Bresciano may have been trained by Foppa at Brescia ;
Lomazzo's
mention of a Vincenzo da Brescia who was admirable in the treatment of foliage may
possibly refer to this artist. We stated in Note i that it was uncertain whether the
passage referred to Foppa, since Lomazzo evidently sought to draw a distinction
between the great Vincenzo Foppa "the Milanese," and Vincenzo of Brescia, whom
he apparently considered to be more particularly a decorative artist.
A notice of a painter, Vi?icenso Bresciano, is contained in a MS. written by a
certain Pietro Antonio Cavagnari(?) of Sondrio in 1634-35; the entry is as follows:
"The altarpiece of St. John Baptist in the old Collegiate Church of Sondrio was
executed in 1525 by Vincenzo, a painter of Brescia, as may be seen by the inscription
at the base of the said altarpiece and the same painter, it is said, executed
the altarpieces in the church called della Sassella and in the parish church of Caiolo,
which paintings are highly praised."^
The altarpiece of Caiolo, near Albossaggio, is still in existence ; the main portion
is carving, but in the lower part are painted two angels holding a cartellino inscribed
:
" Opus Vincencii Brixiensis Die VII Maii 1539."* Who this Vincenzo the
Brescian may have been and whether he was identical with the painter of the Sala
Capitolare we cannot tell, but one point we think is certain, that he had nothing to do
with Vincenzo Civerchio, who, as already stated, is always called of Crema.^ The
assumption that every Vincenzo of Brescia who cannot be labelled Foppa must of
necessity be Civerchio appears to us extremely arbitrary, considering the numerous
other artists named Vincenzo who were working at Brescia in the first half of the
sixteenth century. We subjoin the names of a few of these painters, and are confident
that this by no means exhausts the list : Vincenso Sacchetti, who is first
* Relasione del Ristauri intrapresi alia gran Guglia del Duomo all' anno 1844, p. 15, note i \a.
2 Op. cit., plate ix.
' Of this MS. we have no personal knowledge, but the quotation was kindly communicated
to us by Cav. Pietro da Ponte of Brescia.
* Not seen, communicated by Cav. da Ponte.
^ It is possible that the author of the carved altarpiece of Caiolo may have been identical
with "Vincentius sculptor filius Francisci Rovette," who was living in the second ward of
S. Alessandro at Brescia, in 1548 (see Est. of that year, f. 95). For a Vincenzo Bresciano (?) who
worked at Mantua in 1531 and 1532 under Giulio Romano, see D' Arco, Delle Arti e degli Artefici
di Mantova, II, i ig ; and Storia di G. Romano, p. 79 note, etc. ; cf. also D'Ancona, Origini del
Teatro Italiano, II, 433, note.