Pair of Italian oil on canvas paintings by Chierici

The pair of genre paintings depict the daily tasks of motherhood in an ordinary household in Italy in the 19^th Century.

One painting is titled ‘La Pappa’ (Baby Food), and shows a mother seated on a wooden bench, spoon-feeding her baby, who sits in a chair before her. A young child sits with his back to the chair and holds a dish of milk, which a cat laps from. This nurturing act mirrors that performed by the mother. The figures occupy an interior with a brick floor and plaster walls, and which is modestly furnished with wooden furniture and a single picture of a friar, or saint, with a piece of rope hanging beside it.

Titled ‘La Culla’ (The Cradle), the second painting depicts a woman lifting the cover of a cradle to check on her sleeping baby. The woman is accompanied by a young boy, who holds on to his mother’s apron and stands on a step to better see into the cradle. Like ‘La Pappa’, this scene takes place in a sparsely furnished room in a house. A drying rack draped with fabrics occupies the space to the left of the figures, and a shallow dish, jug and staff are placed on a brick ledge on the right. On the wall behind the cradle, there is a wooden crucifix and a picture of a saint. The religious figure portrayed raises his right arm in a similar way to the mother. The painting depicts a simple and honest way of life.

Both paintings are signed ‘G Chierici’ for the accomplished Italian artist, Gaetano Chierici. Chierici studied at the academies of Modena and Florence, then he moved to Bologna to train under the artist, Giulio Cesare Ferrari. In the late 1860s, Chierici began to paint genre scenes, mostly of domestic interiors, like this pair. He exhibited his work in the Fine Art Expositions at the Brera Academy in 1869, where it was well-received by critics and collectors. Later in his career, Chicerici became the director of the Workers’ School of Drawing in Reggio Emilia.

These paintings are displayed in finely carved giltwood frames, the backs of which are fitted with title labels.