Foppa, Vincenzo (c. 1427-1515)

Italian painter, who worked mainly in Milan and nearby Pavia. He was their leading artist until the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci in the 1480s. His works include Crucifixion (1456, Bergamo), strongly influenced by Jacopo Bellini, from whom Foppa derived his interest in colour and light, and Boy Reading Cicero (Wallace Collection, London), the only part of a fresco cycle for the Medici bank in Milan which survives.

Born near Brescia, Foppa probably trained in Padua, possibly as a pupil of Squarcione. While his early works show the influence of Bellini, later works also bear the influence of Provençal and Flemish art. There is also the influence of the paintings of Bramante, as seen in Foppa's frescoes in Milan of the life of St Peter Martyr (1466-68) and the martyrdom of St Sebastian (1485).