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

;
Chap. I. AT GENOA, 1 46
29
Visconti. Throughout the fifteenth century, in spite of the wars by which the
Genoese were constantly harassed, painters from North Italy continued to
flock to Genoa, probably because in these years some harsh clauses in the
statutes of the Painters' Guild were considerably modified, and they were
enabled to pursue their art under more favourable conditions.*
The Pavians were quick to seize the opportunities which Genoa offered
them ; many painters opened workshops there and ended by settling altogether
in the city, and in the early fifteenth century one of the busiest and
most populous streets of Genoa was known as the "Carrubeo de Papia."*
In 1446 the Duke of Milan, in order to facilitate intercourse between
Pavia and Genoa, had caused special arrangements to be made relating to
safe-conducts. In 1460 the Podesta of Pavia was a Genoese, and that year
was a remarkably prosperous one for Genoa. Giustiniani observes "
: In the
beginning of the year 1460 everything was quiet in the city, there was no talk
of war, and . . . business was attended to."^ The moment was therefore a
favourable one for an inhabitant of Pavia to try his fortunes in Liguria, and
there can be no doubt that Vincenzo betook himself thither in the course of
this year.
The document proving his presence at Genoa is of January 2, 1461 (see
App. II, Doc. 3), and states that Master Vincenzo de Bressia, inhabiting
Pavia, agreed to paint both the walls and the ceiling of the Chapel of St. John
Baptist in the Cathedral of Genoa^ with subjects selected by his employers,
the priors of the confraternity of that saint.'
'
Alizeri, Notizie de' Professori del disegno, etc., I, 209 and foil. ^ Ibid., 262.
^ " Nel principio dell' anno 1460 in la citta le cose erano quiete e non si parlava di
guerra anzi si attendeva . . . alia mercanzia" i^Annali di Genova, II, 419, ed. 1854).
* The document says the paintings were to be " in facie et in coelo," from which we
should naturally infer that they were on the ceiling and entrance wall or fa9ade of the
chapel. The latter, however, was, as we know, entirely decorated with sculpture, and
we are therefore driven to the conclusion that Foppa's frescoes must have been executed
on the interior walls of the chapel.
^ The bones of St. John Baptist were said to have been brought from the East by a
Genoese in the eleventh century, and after some vicissitudes were solemnly deposited in
the cathedral (Olivieri, Carte, etc., p. 219). In the fourteenth century a confraternity
was formed to guard the precious relics, and the chapel where they were enshrined, erected
by the Campanari family in the fourteenth century, was later reconstructed and beautified
by the confraternity (Accinelli, Liguria Sacra, f. 15 ; Giscardi, Origine delle Chiese,
etc., di Genova, f.
345 ; and Alizeri, Giiida di Genova, p. 16, etc.). The external decoration
of the chapel, a work of remarkable beauty which is still existing, was executed by
the Lombard sculptors Domenico and Elia Gaggini between 1448 and 1465, and about
1460 the question of the pictorial adornment of the interior was considered. (For the
work of these sculptors see Luigi Cervetto, / Gaggini da Bissone ; Suida, Genua, p. 51
L. Filippini in Arte, 1908, fasc. i, and others.)
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