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

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Chap. I. JACOPO BELLINI'S FRESCO AT VERONA ii
It is not known when these drawings were produced, but the date inscribed in
the London book, 1430, is usually assumed to be approximately correct, and
the Paris book with its many indications of a connection with Ferrara and the
Este has been placed as late as 1450.' The great decorative works which
Jacopo Bellini executed in Venice have long since perished, and the fresco at
Verona, which was one of his masterpieces and might have thrown an important
light on all these points, was ruthlessly destroyed in 1759.^ Until a few
years ago it was always considered that a picture which at the beginning of
the nineteenth century was in the Albarelli Collection at Venice, and more
recently in Casa Albrizzi in that city, preserved the composition of this lost
fresco— a view supported by the fact that on this picture were the lines,
signature, and date known to have been inscribed on the fresco.' An outline
drawing of this composition was made by a nineteenth century engraver,
Paolo Caliari, with the full inscription ; and three paintings, copies of the
same composition, are still in existence at Verona, where Caliari's drawing is
also preserved. The Casa Albrizzi picture was evidently the prototype of this
group of reproductions, and Crowe and Cavalcaselle call it a contemporary
copy or even a replica by Jacopo Bellini himself,* but judging from the photograph
this seems quite impossible, for it is evidently a sixteenth century
copy ;* but in the three principal figures, which alone concern us here, some-
*
See Gronau {Chronique des Arts, 1895, p. 55), who considers both books contemporaneous.
The acquisition of the Paris sketch-book was referred to in the Bulletin de
la Societe des Antiquaires, July 30, 1884. See also Miintz, Gazette des Beaux Arts,
1884.
^
By order of one of the canons of the cathedral on June 25, 1759; Cr. and Cav.
(I, no) make the curious mistake of ascribing this act of vandalism to Memmo the
Bishop, who was, on the contrary, the donor, by whom the fresco was commissioned
from Jacopo Bellini in 1436. The whole history of this work is summarized by
L. Simeoni in his article on the subject published in Atti delV Accademia . . di
Verona, Sen IV, Vol. V, 1904, p. 29 ; see also Professor C. Ricci, Jacopo Bellini e i
siioi libri di disegni, I, p. 30 and foil.
'
The inscription on the fresco was as follows (Simeoni, op. cit.)
M, no, 1 1 1.
Mille quadrigintos sex et triginta per annos
Jacobus haec pinxit, tenui quantum attigit artem
Ingenio Bellinus, idem praeceptor at illi
Gentilis Veneto fama celeberrimus orbe
Quo Fabriana viro praestanti urbs patria gaudet.
^
We are unacquainted with the picture itself, which has now disappeared from
Venice, and no one is able to furnish any information as to its present whereabouts.
Some years ago the late Dr. Ludwig informed us of its existence and had a negative of
it made for us from which our illustration is taken ; it was his conviction that this copy
preserved the composition of the lost fresco at Verona.
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