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

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44 VINCENZO FOPPA
carried out. This therefore gives us a fairly certain chronological basis for the
pictorial decoration, and some further indirect evidence is afforded by certain
scattered notices in the State Archives at Florence, where a great number of
letters from Pigello Portinari and his brother Azzareto to the Medici are
preserved. Between August, 1455 (when Francesco Sforza presented the
house to Cosimo), and October, 1468 (the date of Pigello's death), we have
over eighty-five of these letters ;
yet the references to the palace are tantalizingly
few and of the briefest character, containing not the slightest allusion to
the architect or artists employed in the reconstruction and decoration. The
most we gain is perhaps a further glimmer of light as to the date of its
completion. On December 17, 1459, Pigello, writing to Giovanni Cosimo
de' Medici, reminds him of his promise to visit Milan for one month during
the coming Lent, and after speaking of important business that will have to
be transacted, he adds :
"You would also come just in time to have the house adorned, and you
would then order it according to your taste, which would be much more to the
purpose."' From this we may infer that the principal adornment, under
which head would of course be included the painting, was not executed at that
date. The house, however, was not ready by the spring, for on March 9,
1460, Pigello writes again to Giovanni Cosimo that he will not press his
coming, as he would wish the house to be finished first ;
" by September," he
continues, "it will be in order . . . still if you wish to come sooner . . . we
shall always be in readiness to do you honour, though not in the same way as
if the house was finished . . . which, when you see it, will please you I think ;
and though the cost will be far greater than was first intended, yet, considering
the honour, the fame, and the beauty of it ... to my thinking we need
not regret the expense . . . and you will have cause to be well satisfied . . .
for it will do you great honour. How pleasing it will be to you, and how
much His Highness delights in it, not to mention the admiration of the
whole city— you will see and understand at your coming."
^
// decembre 14^9 da Milano, Pigello Portinari a Cosimo dei Medici: " Verresti
anche a punto al tempo di fare aconciare la chasa e ordinerestila vol a vostro modo che
verebbe tanto piii a proposito " (Mediceo avanti al Principato, Filza VI, No. 434,
Archivio di Stato, Firenze).
"
*'Io non vi richordo 11 venir qui come chredo sia la intenzione vostra, perche
prima vorrei avessimo compiuto la chasa . . . al settembre sara in ordine . . . tutta
volta, volendo venire prima, non guardate a quello, che sempre saremo in ordine a farvi
honore, ma non in quella forma come quando la chasa sara fornita ... la quale, quando
vedrete, chredo vi piacera e sebene la spesa sara assai piu di quello si designo,
considerato lonore e la fama e la grazia di qua ... a mio parere . . . non chredo che
v' abia a dolere esta spesa, ma ne avite a essere molto contento . . . perche faravvi