The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian

painters Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

active in

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order to capture natural light, shade, and colour. This practice relates the Macchiaioli to the French

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

s who came to prominence a few years later, although the Macchiaioli pursued somewhat different purposes. The most notable artists of this movement were Giuseppe Abbati, Cristiano Banti,

Odoardo Borrani Odoardo Borrani (22 August 1833 – 14 September 1905) was an Italian painter associated with the Macchiaioli group. Biography He was born in Pisa. The Borrani family moved to Florence, where Odoardo enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1853 ...

, Vincenzo Cabianca, Adriano Cecioni, Vito D'Ancona, Serafino De Tivoli, Giovanni Fattori, Raffaello Sernesi, Silvestro Lega and

Telemaco Signorini Telemaco Signorini (; August 18, 1835 – February 10, 1901) was an Italian artist who belonged to the group known as the Macchiaioli. Biography He was born in the Santa Croce quarter of Florence, and showed an early inclination toward the st ...

The movement

The movement originated with a small group of artists, many of whom had been revolutionaries in the uprisings of 1848. In the late 1850s, the artists met regularly at the Caffè Michelangiolo in Florence to discuss art and politics. These idealistic young men, dissatisfied with the art of the academies, shared a wish to reinvigorate Italian art by emulating the bold tonal structure they admired in such old masters as

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of h ...

and

Tintoretto Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed wit ...

.Broude, p. 3 They also found inspiration in the paintings of their French contemporaries of the Barbizon school. They believed that areas of light and shadow, or " macchie" (literally patches or spots) were the chief components of a work of art. The word macchia was commonly used by Italian artists and critics in the nineteenth century to describe the sparkling quality of a drawing or painting, whether due to a sketchy and spontaneous execution or to the harmonious breadth of its overall effect. In its early years the new movement was ridiculed. A hostile review published on November 3, 1862 in the journal '' Gazzetta del Popolo'' marks the first appearance in print of the term Macchiaioli.Broude, p. 96 The term carried several connotations: it mockingly implied that the artists' finished works were no more than sketches, and recalled the phrase "darsi alla macchia", meaning, idiomatically, to hide in the bushes or scrubland. The artists did, in fact, paint much of their work in these wild areas. This sense of the name also identified the artists with outlaws, reflecting the traditionalists' view that new school of artists was working outside the rules of art, according to the strict laws defining artistic expression at the time. Although the Macchiaioli have often been compared to the Impressionists, they did not go as far as their younger French contemporaries in the pursuit of optical effects. Erich Steingräber says the Macchiaioli "declined to divide up their palette into the components of the colour-spectrum, and did not paint blue shadows. This is why their pictures lack the all-penetrating light that eclipses colours and contours and gives rise to the 'vibrism' peculiar to Impressionist painting. The independent identity of the individual figures is unimpaired." The verdict that the Macchiaioli were "failed impressionists" has been countered by an alternative view which places the Macchiaioli in a category of their own, a decade ahead of the Parisian impressionists. This interpretation views the Macchiaioli as early modernists, with their broad theories of painting capturing the essence of subsequent movements that would not see the light of day for another decade or more. In this view the Macchiaioli emerge as being very much embedded in their social fabric and context, literally fighting alongside

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pa ...

on behalf of the

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

and its ideals. As such, their works provide comments on various socio-political topics, including

Jewish emancipation Jewish emancipation was the process in various nations in Europe of eliminating Jewish disabilities, e.g. Jewish quotas, to which European Jews were then subject, and the recognition of Jews as entitled to equality and citizenship rights. It in ...

, prisons and hospitals, and women's conditions, including the plight of war widows and life behind the lines. The Macchiaioli did not follow Monet's practice of finishing large paintings entirely ''

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

'', but rather used small sketches painted out-of-doors as the basis for works finished in the studio. Many of the artists of the Macchiaioli died in penury, achieving fame only towards the end of the 19th century. Today the work of the Macchiaioli is much better known in Italy than elsewhere; much of the work is held, outside the public record, in private collections there. Other painters, such as Luigi and Flavio Bertelli and

Antonino Sartini Antonino Sartini (Crespellano, 1889 – Bazzano, 7 May 1954) was an Italian painter. He has been called the "painter of serenity" and belongs to that group of landscape painters of the early 1900s of the " Bolognese School of Painting", such a ...

, were influenced by this movement, without being a full part of it. The Macchiaioli were the subject of an exhibition at the

Chiostro del Bramante The Chiostro del Bramante (Cloisters of Bramante) is an Italian Renaissance building in Rome, commissioned by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa in around 1500, and designed by the architect Donato Bramante. Today the building serves as a space for exhib ...

in Rome, October 11, 2007 – February 24, 2008, which traveled to the

Villa Bardini A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

in Florence, March 19 – June 22, 2008. An exhibition in Venice, at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti showed the capolavori della collezione Mario Taragoni from March 8 - July 27, 2008. Another exhibition of the Macchiaioli was held at the Terme Tamerici in

Montecatini Terme Montecatini Terme is an Italian municipality (''comune'') of c. 20,000 inhabitants in the province of Pistoia, Tuscany, central Italy. It is the most important center in Valdinievole. The town is located at the eastern end of Piana di Lucc ...

, August 12, 2009 – March 18, 2010. The

Musée de l'Orangerie The Musée de l'Orangerie ( en, Orangery Museum) is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Garden next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The museum is most famous as th ...

in Paris mounted an exhibition of the Macchiaioli April 10 – July 22, 2013.

Gallery

File:Giuseppe Abbati, The Tower of the Palazzo del Podestà.jpg, Giuseppe Abbati, ''The Tower of the Palazzo del Podestà'', 1865, oil on wood File:Vito d'Ancona - Signora in bianco.jpg, Vito D'Ancona, ''Lady in white'', oil on canvas, Modern art gallery of Milan. File:Giovanni Fattori 027.jpg, Giovanni Fattori, ''La Rotonda di Palmieri'', 1866, oil on wood, Florence, Galleria d'Arte Moderna File:Giovanni Fattori 019.jpg, Giovanni Fattori, ''Prince Amadeo wounded at Custoza'', 1870, oil on canvas File:Silvestro Lega - il bindolo -1863.jpg, Silvestro Lega, ''il Bindolo'', 1863 File:Lega Ragazza di Crespina.jpg, Silvestro Lega, ''Girl of Crespina'' File:Telemaco Signorini, Via Torta, Firenze, 1870 circa 16,6x11,3cm.jpg,

, ''Via Torta'', ca. 1870 File:Telemaco Signorini, Il ghetto di Firenze, 1882, 95x65 cm.jpg, Telemaco Signorini, ''Ghetto of Florence'', 1882

Notes

References

*Boime, Albert (1993). ''The Art of the Macchia and the Risorgimento''. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. * Broude, Norma (1987). ''The Macchiaioli: Italian Painters of the Nineteenth Century''. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. *Steingräber, E., & Matteucci, G. (1984). ''The Macchiaioli: Tuscan Painters of the Sunlight : March 14-April 20, 1984''. New York: Stair Sainty Matthiesen in association with Matthiesen, London. *Turner, J. (1996). ''

Grove Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

''. USA: Oxford University Press.

The movement

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

Further reading