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

xii
INTRODUCTION
The year of Foppa's birth is not known, but for the reasons stated in the
Appendix (I, Notes 2 and 3) it appears to us that it most probably took
place in 1427 ;
yet the earliest documentary record which we possess relating
to the painter is of 1456— i.e. his signed and dated work in the Accademia
Carrara at Bergamo—from which we should certainly assume that he was at
that date a fully developed artist. We are therefore entirely in the dark as to
his early years and artistic training. Unaided by documents, we have in this
case been forced to rely wholly upon the evidence of what we believe to be
his earliest known works, and have hazarded the opinion that the master, to
whose personal influence and teaching Foppa owed most, was Jacopo
Bellini. In making this suggestion we are aware that we put ourselves
in opposition to accepted opinion and to the traditional theory as to his
years of apprenticeship ; though, as we have endeavoured to point out in
the text, that theory rests on no foundation whatsoever, being based upon
words ascribed to Filarete which, in point of fact, that writer never uttered.
The severity and rigid outline of the Squarcionesque school of Padua,
under the guidance of which Vincenzo is usually said to have learned his art,
is altogether absent from his earliest known works and, instead, we find in
them qualities which we meet with in the early school of Verona and also in
the works of Jacopo Bellini. Of this master we are so constantly reminded in
the art of Vincenzo Foppa that we are constrained to think the two painters
must have stood in the relation of master and pupil to one another.
The work of Jacopo Bellini has now been brought within reach of
students by means of photography and through the publications of Prof.
Corrado Ricci and of M. Victor Goloubew. We have thought it best to refer
the reader to these works and to
Giraudon's photographs, rather than to give
reproductions ourselves (except in one instance) of isolated examples of
Jacopo Bellini's compositions. To our great regret we have been unable to
consult M. Goloubew's book Les Dessins de Jacopo Bellini^ which will undoubtedly
be of the utmost importance to students of this subject.
The present state of our knowledge of the Lombard school is, however,
limited in the extreme, and we can put forward the above suggestion only
with the utmost reserve, since the discovery of a document might at any
moment subvert a theory based upon individual impressions alone. We
should certainly be amongst the first to welcome with genuine satisfaction any
fresh light which a further discovery of documents may in the future shed
upon this obscure period of Foppa's early life and training.
The term of the master's life, as will be shown from the evidence of documents,
has been prolonged by c. twenty-four years. Much of his work, therefore,
may still be in existence ;
yet thus far only thirty-five paintings are
known, which can with any show of probability be ascribed to him. Even if