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

302 VINCENZO FOPPA
risen Christ is being prepared, which will soon be finished. As soon as your Highness
has decided how the ancona is to be painted, there will be no further delay, provided
that it is possible to cash the remaining moneys of the sum assigned, which moneys
were once in cash and are now calculated among those to be paid by creditors such as
Ser Gabriele Paleari has left to your revenue officers. I for my part will not fail
to demand them, and will have the officers pressed to cash them in order to execute
whatsoever your Lordship has commanded to be done. The curtain which is to
go all round the said ancona and to cover the figures and the relics is not included
in this price. But I have told the painters that they must see what the cost
of this curtain without paintings would be; and if they hear from your Highness
that it is to be painted, they will then be able to say what the whole cost will amount
to. In this estimate the figures to be painted in the space between the ancona and the
architraves have not been included, as the painters will inform your Highness, but with
the drawing they will be able to point out these spaces, so that they may know what
they are to paint in them. And though before, I had stated what would be the probable
cost of painting and adorning the ancona and the chapel, yet when the work is
customary, by
finished we must abide by the valuation, which will be carried out, as is
three or four other painters, for the original estimate is only approximate. I am also
having the said two hundred caskets made, which will soon be ready, and when finished
I shall have them lined with sandal wood, which I shall procure from Gottardo as
directed by your Highness, to whom I humbly commend myself. Your Lordship's
servant Bartolomeo da Cremona.
Milan, June 8, 1474.
22. Vincenzo Foppa deposits the sum of 50 gold ducats with Giovanni Antonio de
Martis of Varese, as security and part payment in advance for the rent of a house with
a garden in the parish of S. Invenzio at Pavia, which he takes for six years from the
said Giov. Antonio.
June 20, 1474, Pavia.
In nomine Domini, amen. Anno a nativitate eiusdem millesimo quadringentesimo
septuagesimo quarto, indicione septima, die vicesimo mensis junii, hora none, vel
circha, in civitate Papie, videlicet in domo habitacionis mei notarii ... in Porta Sancti
Petri ad murum, in Parochia Sancte Marie in Pertica . . . Johannes Antonius de
Martis de Varixio, filius quondam domini Pauli, civis Papie . . . confitetur versus
magistrum Vincencium de Fopa, filium quondam Johannis, pictorem, ibi presentem
. . . seabeo . . . recepisse in custodia, deposito et guardia . . ducatos quinquaginta
.
auri et in auro . . . ibidem actualiter numeratos et traditos . . . quos ducatos . . .
promittit ipse Johannes Antonius restituere dicto magistro Vincencio . . . infra sex
annos proxime futures, etc. Et inde, etc. Presentibus domino Melchione de Georgiis
filio quondam domini Augustini, Alexandre de Petra filio quondam domini Ardizoli et
Johanne Jacobo de Gravanago filio domini Surlioni, inde testibus.
Eisdem anno, indicione, die, hora, loco et testibus suprascriptis, suprascriptus
Johannes Antonius de Martis . . . investit ad fictum . . . hinc ad annos sex proxime
futures, suprascriptum magistrum Vincencium presentem, de domo una sita in Papia,
cum canepa, curia, orto, cameris et aliis suis edificiis, posita in Porta Pallacii, Parochia