Giacomo Francesco Cipper detto il Todeschini (1664-1736), Workshop of - Madre che nutre il bambino

Giacomo Francesco Cipper, known as Todeschini

(Feldkirch, 15 July 1664 – Milan, 17 October 1736)

Mother feeding the child

Oil on canvas, 57 x 52 cm

c. 1710

The painting depicts a mother intent on feeding her own child, rendered with vivid verisimilitude an episode of daily life. The work presents a vivid slice of Lombard reality from the early 18th century, evoked through details of precise naturalistic observation, such as the jug from which milk was poured into the metal bowl and the clothing of the two protagonists, fully coherent with the era’s material culture.

The painting’s brushwork, characterized by a confident, energetic stroke with immediate visual impact, points attributively toward Giacomo Francesco Cipper.

Significant comparisons can be drawn with the Desco familiare from the Gastaldi Rotelli Collection, in which the rendering of children’s faces and the treatment of the clothes, built up with rapid, fluid, and vibrant brushstrokes, offer strong stylistic and formal analogies.

In Lombardy in the first half of the eighteenth century, subjects of this kind, focused on depicting daily life and the popular classes, gained increasing importance, establishing themselves as one of the most original manifestations of genre painting.

Active between Bergamo and Brescia from 1705 to 1736 and probably of Tyrolean origin, Giacomo Francesco Cipper was among the leading interpreters of that Lombard realist strand which includes, alongside him, prominent figures such as Giacomo Ceruti, known as il Pitocchetto, and Vittore Ghislandi, known as Fra’ Galgario.

Although sharing with these artists the attention to natural detail and to the representation of the popular world, his production is distinguished by a more plainly populist and narrative character, achieving particularly high quality in works such as the Rustic Concert, Rest during the Harvest, the Market, and the Kitchen (Lombard Painting of the Eighteenth Century, edited by Marco Bona Castellotti, Longanesi, Milan, 1986, nos. 209, 210, 211, 215).

The recent monographic exhibition dedicated to Giacomo Francesco Cipper, staged in 2025 at the Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, has also contributed to critically redefining the artist’s figure, confirming his role as a leading figure in genre painting in Lombardy in the first half of the XVIII century and highlighting his originality within Lombard realism.