The fish market: fisherman with eel and two women

The painting, attributed to Giacomo Francesco Cipper, depicts a fisherman who, winking, shows an eel to two women, one of whom is an old spinner: it is one of the author's favourite subjects, who always portrays her in the foreground, with a dog and a spindle next to her.

However, this scene from everyday life, of a miserable and patched humanity, is not intended to move the spectators, but rather to arouse sympathy and hilarity in them.

According to art historian Roberto Longhi, the painter's style also has affinities with the painting of Eberhard Keil, a Danish painter from whom Cipper also inherited the themes, enriched, however, by the typical freshness of Velázquez.

The work was chosen by Hackert, together with three other works by the same artist, to furnish the Game Room used by the king and his gentlemen for games and entertainment.

The selection, in addition to being a tribute to the queen – Austrian like Cipper – testifies how the value of the painter was undisputed and widely recognized at the time.