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

Chap. II. FRESCO AT HERTFORD HOUSE 51
identical with the composition in the Wallace Collection known as "Gian
Galeazzo Sforza reading" Cicero," to which we referred briefly on page 48.
The description given of it by these Milanese writers, inexact as it is, nevertheless
leads us to think of that composition to which, with certain restrictions,
even De Pagave's words might be taken to apply. Considering the
height at which the fresco was placed and the appearance it probably presented
at that date, being no doubt covered with dust and dirt and weatherstained
after centuries of exposure in an open cortile, it is easy to understand
that De Pagave may have received a false impression of the composition,
hence his misleading account of it. After its removal from the wall it passed
out of Italy and into the hands of a collector in Paris, but some record of it
was preserved at Milan, and Signor Agostino Caravati, in a very interesting
article in Aiie Decorativa,^ stated, on the authority of Professor Pogliaghi,
who derived his information from the late Professor Bertini, that it occupied
a position on the front of a parapet. In his reconstruction of the cortile,
this writer reproduces on the parapet of the upper loggia what might be termed
a free version of the Wallace fresco, resembling it in the general lines of the
composition, but differing from it in details ; while in the lower portion of his
sheet of studies (see illustration) he gives a faithful reproduction of the
Hertford House composition without further comment." We shall return to
this question later.
Years ago the fresco of the Wallace Collection was ascribed to Foppa
by the late M. Eugene Miintz and was reproduced by him ; ^
but the
attribution did not find favour at the time, and art historians were disposed
ascribe it to Bramantino. Modern criticism has, however, revived M. Miintz'
attribution, and Mr. Berenson in his latest volume on the North Italian
to
1
1895, pp. 21-31.
-
We may briefly summarize here the history of this reconstruction (kindly communicated
to us by Dr. Carotti), to which our illustration owes its origin. A
series of drawings of the cortile had been made by Professor Bertini prior to its
destruction. His pupil, Signor Pogliaghi, Professor of Decorative Art at the Academy,
Milan, decided to utilize these sketches for a reconstructive study, and organized a
competition among his pupils. The successful competitor was Signor Caravati, who,
as a result of his work, published the paper in Arte Italiana Decorathm, alkided to above.
Professor Bertini, who was still alive at the time, himself supervised the whole scheme,
and made numerous additions and corrections to his own sketches. It is probable that
the composition of the youth on the parapet may thus have drifted further and further
from its original prototype, which would explain the differences noticeable between it
and the fresco of the Wallace Collection.
^ La Renaissance en France et en Italic, p. 261. The fresco is here spoken of as over
the door, which was certainly incorrect. M. Miintz reproduced it again in his Leonardo
da Vinci, p. 134, 1899.