Pietro Torrini (Firenze, 1851 -1914). The Pope's Chef.

Pietro Torrini (Firenze, 1851 -1914).

The Pope's Chef.

Oil on canvas.

Size with frame: cm23.

Carved and gilded wooden frame.
Label present (German or Austrian customs office from the early twentieth century?) and a note on the painter's biography in English, which alludes to its provenance from an English collection.

Signed with red letters top right corner.

Painting that represents a humble meal prepared by a man no longer young, who looks at the spoon with great hunger. The name of the painting alludes to the headdress under the hat, which vaguely resembles the "papaline" that popes wear. The painter lets his ironic and playful character shine through in this representation, describing with extreme care the physiognomic details, the hands, the nails, the shiny surface of the beautiful copper pot. Extreme realism is striking for the technical virtuosity of the painter.

Pietro Torrini (Florence, 185 – after 1888), born to a humble and large Florentine family, in the San Niccolo district, soon demonstrated a strong propensity for drawing. In 1867, Pietro was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence
Initially he dedicated himself to history painting. In 1869 he won the “emulation” competition medal in the drawings category.
He later becomes a skilled interpreter of genre painting. The accuracy and detailed rendering of small and witty scenes of everyday life are exhibited to the Promoters, enjoying considerable success. Torrini, in fact, conquered the international market very quickly, arousing admiration especially among collectors in the Anglo-Saxon area.

Pietro Torrini made his debut in 1875 in Florence, during the Exhibition for the Centenary of Michelangelo. He exposes you to a painting of history.

But soon the artist, driven by the certain economic success, dedicated himself tirelessly to the creation of pleasant genre paintings.
Pietro Torrini is above all known for witty genre skits.
Easy-to-read themes become the protagonists of Pietro Torrini's scenes. Very frequent are funny scenes in which groups of friars sing and drink or in which entire families dance and eat at the tavern, or in which elderly people taste good wine or play cards. In many pictures the action takes place in humble and simple places which are filled and colored by the cheerfulness of the characters.



In these paintings, as always happens with genre painting, a very accurate rendering of details emerges, precisely in the neo-Flemish tradition. Clothes and household utensils, books, food and bottles, typical elements of still life, are created with the tip of a brush.

Even the medium-small size of the tipinto reveals the link with the Flemish tradition.

Pietro Torrini collaborated with the architect Giuseppe Poggi in the designs of the "new ring roads of Florence" and the "Piazzale Michelangelo".