Period: Early 18th century
SOLD Oil on canvas painting, measuring 119 x 130 cm without frame and 130 x 160 cm with frame, depicting an en plein air scene with a dog and card players by the painter Giacomo Francesco Cipper, known as il Todeschini (Feldkirch 1664-Milan 1736). Cipper's work, as far as is known, consists exclusively of genre scenes, mostly with large-format backgrounds, often with life-size or three-quarter length figures; the environment and background are neglected by choice, and the spatial relationships between people and objects are unclear. The exaggerated characterization of the figures is a typical characteristic of our painter, who loves trivial and popular depictions engaged in various occupations such as eating and drinking (alone, in pairs, or in groups), but also with other thematic elements such as musicians, often flute players, card players, or morra players. The figures, which appear to the observer as if on a stage with their miserable and patched clothes, do not want to provoke compassion for their desolate condition, but rather to amuse. This canvas, most likely painted in his mature period a few years after his arrival in Italy, therefore probably between the years 1715/25, has a more vivid and varied color, attenuated plasticity, and a precise, almost dry drawing, which is likely justified by the influence of Bellotto. The compositions become richer and more complicated, mostly full-length figures are placed in a rather extended space that is, however, like an indeterminate scenography, neither interior nor landscape, thus allowing the painter to avoid perspective representation. The smoother and more effective style is a sign of the influence of Antonio Amorosi. This representation, like other works, is not immune to a good dose of irony. In his creative path, Cipper renews the seventeenth-century tradition of the Bamboccianti and reinterprets the examples of Monsù Bernardo and Magnasco in a very personal key, with the extremely successful ambition of transposing his ideas with a 'monumental' spirit, dedicating himself to a realistic definition of everyday objects, food, and household goods. In this canvas, the subjects belong to the popular class. The painting contains facets that Cipper demonstrates he can conduct with skill and a spirit of observation, in symbiosis with a vibrant material and quick brushstrokes, reaching an excellent qualitative level. The complex scene in the foreground, as well as the splendid depiction of the dog with those large and almost plastic ears, perhaps the painter's true signature in this painting, surprises with the attention to the chromatic and luminous relationships between the various elements and the accurate anatomical precision of the details. Among the main examples that have the same style as our painting, we should mention The Knife Grinder and the Gypsy Fortune Teller of the Joanneum in Graz; the Gypsy Concert, with many figures, from the Peloso collection in Novi Ligure (signed "Jacob Frances Zipper pinxit"), where the conductor has an attitude often recurring in Cipper's paintings; the Genre Scene from the Hermitage in Leningrad, in which the woman gutting the fish and the splendid still life of seafood recall the painting in the Museum of Auxerre, and the two pendants with Card Players and Morra Players, from a private collection in Budapest. The paintings and art objects published here are my exclusive property and, consequently, are always available to be viewed in person, by appointment, at my exhibition locations in Sanremo and Brescia. The work, like all our objects, is sold with a FIMA photographic certificate of authenticity and lawful provenance; this document identifies the object, adding value to the item. We personally handle and organize the packaging and shipping of works of art with insurance Worldwide. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian