Antonio Cifrondi (1665-1730), Woman with hand warmer

Antonio Cifrondi (1665-1730) Woman with hand warmer Oil on canvas, 76 x 59 cm Born in the 17th century in Clusone, in the Seriana valley in the province of Bergamo, Antonio Cifrondi painted a large number of works alternating between the sacred and the profane, with a late-Baroque style. He was in Bologna around 1673, where he was a pupil of Marcantonio Franceschini (an echo of this frequentation can be recognised in the David and Goliath of the Chamber of Deputies), in 1679 his presence is documented in Rome, then perhaps in Naples, Turin and in France between Grenoble and Paris, coming into contact with the painting of the great masters of the past, but also with the experiences of his contemporaries. Having returned to his homeland around 1686, he worked feverishly until the end of his days in the Bergamo area, with a style recognisable for the lively use of colour, the speed of the brushstroke, the marked and almost caricatured characters of the figures. In the second part of his activity, starting from the early 1700s, the palette becomes poorer. This typical feature of his production also characterises the last phase of Cifrondi's work, which sees the painter active in Brescia dedicated above all to depicting beggars, according to models very close to those of the young Todeschini. The elderly woman portrayed here exudes a strong expressiveness, she is depicted warming her hands inside a fur muff. The painting is characterised by a painting with warm colours, embellished with subtle passages and soft nuances. The figure emerges from the dark and uniform background with a play of light and shadow that enhances some details of her figure. The protagonist is portrayed through a sensitivity that translates into the transposition of a gesture with a veristic flavour, such as that of warming her hands. Often within Cifrondi's paintings one can find images of elderly men and women or of people portrayed during work. The main characteristic of these characters of his is that none of them laugh or smile: the only exceptions concern the author himself in his two self-portraits. A peculiarity of his modus operandi was given by the speed of execution, made possible thanks to the naturalness and ease with which he executed the works. This allowed the execution of a large number of paintings, scattered throughout the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. The painter achieved considerable notoriety, so much so that he became among the most requested in the area.