Giacomo Francesco Cipper, called Todeschini (1664-1736), Pair of paintings

87 x 67 cm
Oil on canvas

1) The man eats bread and cheese 2) Singing woman with glasses Jakob Franz Cipper was born in Feldkirch, Austria, and moved to Italy, where he married in Milan in 1696. That is why he became known by his Italianized name. His nickname "Todeschini" means, "Little German". He worked as a genre painter, whose paintings also included animal still lifes. However, he mainly focused on scenes from the lives of ordinary people. He was influenced by the Danish painter Bernhard Keil (1624-1687), who worked in Italy from 1651. A simple man sits at a table and smokes a pipe after a meal. He laughs at the viewer with satisfaction on his face. His gray mustache adds a humorous touch to his facial expression. There is a loaf of bread and cheese on the table. He puts his hand on the pitcher to drink. In the second picture, a slightly older woman with glasses is singing along to notes. In front of her is a notebook, other sheet music and a flute on the table. The red bodice, blue skirt and yellow scarf combine the three basic colors in the picture. This combination was particularly popular in Italian high-baroque paintings. A man and a woman appear together in a slightly different pose and clothing in a different painting in the musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Saint-Brieuc, France (inv. no. 182). The man plays the flute and is shown younger, while the woman sings along to the notes. Cipper's paintings show a very original and characteristic style, and like the paintings presented here, are characterized by great liveliness and immediacy.