29 Facts About Vincenzo Foppa

Vincenzo Foppa spent his career working for the Sforza family, Dukes of Milan, in Pavia, as well as various other patrons throughout Lombardy and Liguria.

Vincenzo Foppa lived and worked in his native Brescia during his later years.

The latter artist was one of the strongest influences on him, and it is possible that Vincenzo Foppa was directly apprenticed to Bellini.

The earliest known work attributed to Vincenzo Foppa is The Madonna and Child with Angels.

Compositionally, this painting is reminiscent of the Veronese style due to its Gothic appearance, contributing to speculation that Vincenzo Foppa was trained in Verona, possibly by Stefano or Michelino da Besozzo.

The next work known to be by Vincenzo Foppa's hand is his Crucifixion, painted at Bergamo in 1456.

At some point, Vincenzo Foppa was contracted by the Sforza family to work in Pavia.

Vincenzo Foppa received an effusively praiseful letter of recommendation from Sforza which enabled him to receive patronage from the Doge of Genoa and the priors of the confraternity of St John for frescoes in the Chapel of St John the Baptist in the Cathedral of Genoa.

Vincenzo Foppa had gone to Genoa in 1461 to evade the plague present in Pavia at the time, returning to Pavia in 1462 with only the ceiling completed.

Vincenzo Foppa eventually returned to complete the Chapel in 1471, though all of his work there was lost in the 16th century.

In 1463, Vincenzo Foppa was called to Milan by Francesco Sforza to work on various projects.

Vincenzo Foppa was the only painter of Lombardy to receive this distinction.

In 1468, Vincenzo Foppa was again commissioned by Pigello Portinari to decorate the Portinari Chapel at Saint Eustorgio in Milan.

The frescoes in the Chapel display an advanced and creative use of perspective by Vincenzo Foppa, featuring vanishing points outside of the composition.

Vincenzo Foppa returned to Brescia to paint an altarpiece for the Church of Saint Maria Maddalena in 1472 but had returned to Milan by 1473.

In 1474, Vincenzo Foppa collaborated with Zanetto Bugatto and Bonifacio Bembo on an ambitious altarpiece for the Castello of Pavia, but work on the project was halted when Galeazzo Sforza was murdered in 1476.

Vincenzo Foppa completed several ecclesiastical works during the latter part of the decade, including a number of works featuring the Virgin and Child.

Vincenzo Foppa became renowned for these Virgin and Child works, which he continued to produce in the 1480s and for the rest of his career.

Vincenzo Foppa did a number of works for Santa Maria di Brera in Milan, including a polyptych titled Virgin and Child with Saints finished around 1476 and a fresco titled Virgin and Child with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist dated 1485.

At Santa Maria di Brera he completed a fresco of Saint Sebastian, a subject whom Vincenzo Foppa painted several times during the decade.

In 1490, Vincenzo Foppa was granted a yearly allowance of 100 lire by Brescia in exchange for continued artistic contributions to the city, marking his return home.

Vincenzo Foppa continued to work painting numerous devotional works during his remaining years, which he spent largely in his native Brescia as well as Pavia.

Vincenzo Foppa's latest known work is dated 1514, and he is believed to have died in 1515 or 1516 in Brescia.

Vincenzo Foppa's style was heavily influenced by Bellini, Pisanello, and Mantegna.

Vincenzo Foppa was celebrated for his use of perspective, light and colouration.

Vincenzo Foppa accomplished this by the sgraffito method, laying gold leaf under the area where the three Magi were located in the piece, painting them over the gold, and then scraping off paint to give their crowns and other adornments a genuine golden sheen.

The vast majority of Vincenzo Foppa's known works are religious in subject, with a particular focus on paintings of the Virgin with Child.

Vincenzo Foppa was renowned as the greatest painter of his era in Lombardy and is considered the founder of the Early Lombard School.

Vincenzo Foppa was confident in his merit and ability to receive commissions, as he often left cities with jobs unfinished to pursue work elsewhere that he found more interesting or more lucrative.