Macchiaioli

movement c. 1855-1885 Italy Europe

The Macchiaioli were a group of Italian painters who met at the Caffè Michelangiolo in Florence from the late 1850s, many of them veterans of the 1848 uprisings, united by disgust at academic convention and a wish to reinvigorate Italian art. From the old masters - Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Rembrandt - they took bold tonal structure; from the Barbizon painters, reached through Serafino De Tivoli after the 1855 Paris Exposition, they took painting outdoors. Their method built the image from macchie - patches or spots of light and shade - juxtaposed so that contrast, not line, models form. A hostile review of 1862 coined the mocking name. Roughly fifteen years ahead of the French Impressionists, they made natural light the subject of painting, but kept solid forms and dark shadows, refusing to dissolve the figure in atmosphere.

Haystacks , by Giovanni Fattori
Haystacks , by Giovanni FattoriPublic domain (credit: Giovanni Fattori) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Form built from patches (macchie) of contrasting light and shade rather than drawn line
  • Bold, simplified tonal structure; fine detail neglected
  • Painted outdoors (en plein air), directly from natural light
  • Warm earth palette with solid dark shadows - no blue or split-spectrum shadows
  • Contemporary Italian subjects: rural life, military scenes, views of Florence and the coast

Key figures

  • Giovanni Fattori (1825-1908) — Leader of the group; Tuscan landscapes and military scenes in bold patches
  • Silvestro Lega (1826-1895) — Quiet domestic interiors built from blocks of light and shadow
  • Telemaco Signorini (1835-1901) — Painter, etcher and critic who theorized the macchia
  • Giuseppe Abbati (1836-1868) — Small luminous views and interiors of striking tonal economy
  • Diego Martelli (1839-1896) — Critic and host of the Caffè Michelangiolo circle who grounded its realism

Example works

  • Il campo italiano dopo la battaglia di Magenta — Giovanni Fattori (1860-61)
  • The Ward of the Madwomen at San Bonifazio in Florence — Telemaco Signorini (1865)
  • Il canto di uno stornello — Silvestro Lega (1867)

Sources

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