Giacomo Francesco Cipper, called il Todeschini

(Feldkirch 1664–1736 Milan)
The Brawl,
oil on canvas, 225 x 430 cm, framed

Provenance:
Aristocratic collection, Lombardy;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
G. Gruber, Giacomo Francesco Cipper detto il Todeschini (1664-1736), doctoral thesis, Vienna University, 1997, p. 146, no. 368;
G. Gruber, Il ruolo delle stampe nell’ambito della pittura di genere, in: F. Porzio (ed.), Da Caravaggio a Ceruti. La scena di genere e l’immagine dei pitocchi nella pittura italiana, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1998, p. 454, fig. 7;
G. Gruber, Vie et oeuvre de Giacomo Francesco Cipper, in: Autour de Giacomo Francesco Cipper. Gens d’Italie au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles,
B. Sarrazin (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Lyon 2005, p. 34, fig. 15

On account of its quality and large scale the present painting is one of the most significant works by Giacomo Francesco Cipper called il Todeschini. The scene represents a brawl, a subject that was treated frequently in seventeenth and eighteenth century genre painting. Although the most ordinary humble reality was the prime source of inspiration for this type of painting, the diffusion of this kind of image was contributed to significantly by prints, and especially by the etchings of Jaques Callot. These provided an iconographic repertoire, largely proffering from northern Europe, that became the model for many artists to the extent that they became an academic tool in drawing schools, especially in Germany.

Even the paintings of Todeschini are characterised by this type of cross-fertilization: indeed, the present painting is based upon a seventeenth century engraving by Jan Baptiste de Wael (1632 – after 1669) that belonged to a series (Bibliothèque National de France, Paris) from which the artist often borrowed for his paintings. The same engraving was also used as a source by Antonio Mercurio Amorosi (1660-1738) in his Brawl in a private collection at Ancona (see Gruber 1998 in literature).

Cipper extended the compositional scope of the engraving, adding new details to each side of the centrally positioned table around which the brawl takes place. On the left there is an open fire in the chimney piece at which a youth cooks a chicken on a spit, with wild game laid out in the foreground. On the right, a countrywoman stands to one side observing the scene with a meditative air, while beyond her two drinkers are seated at another table. In the centre background, a youth watches the brawl holding onto the bars of a high window.

This crowded scene is masterfully orchestrated around a series of diagonals that contribute to the rhythm of the composition, providing each figure with a theatrically appropriate position. The repertoire of types is typical of Cipper’s painting: country-folk, mendicants, young commoners, and scenes taken from everyday experience. The broad compositional arrangement and the skilful manipulation of light contribute to generating spatial depth in the painting, while the intensely rendered chiaroscuro indicates a dating for this work in the first years of the eighteenth century, as it can be compared to other works of the period, such as the Genre scene in a Milanese private collection dated 1705 (see L. Tognoli, G. F. Cipper, il ‘Todeschini’ e la pittura di genere, Bergamo 1976, p. 149, no. 50 and fig. 9, p. 22). During this period, the Austrian painter was already resident in Milan where he was to conduct the greater part of his career. The large format of the present painting would indicate that this work was a prestigious commission, indicating that already at this date, Cipper was in contact with the most important aristocratic families of Lombardy.

Please note that the present painting is subject to special collection conditions.