Fattori 200: the major exhibition in Livorno relaunching the master of the Macchiaioli

On the bicentenary of the birth of Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825 – Florence, August 30, 1908), Livorno will pay tribute to one of its most extraordinary artists with a major exhibition, a project dedicated to the artist and the city, and a tour of Livorno to discover the places where the painter has lived.

The exhibition, curated by art historian Vincenzo Farinella, will be held at Villa Mimbelli, home of the "G. Fattori" Civic Museum, and the Granai di Villa Mimbelli, from September 6, 2025, to January 11, 2026, with over 200 works.

An exhibition itinerary divided into sections that shows the free vision of an artist who successfully embraced the teachings of Italian painting and the fundamentals of drawing without ever imitating any style, always seeking a personal and authentic path, far from hype and rhetoric because "free art satisfies, consoles, and distracts."

Giovanni Fattori was born on September 6, 1825, in Livorno. From a very young age, he demonstrated an extraordinary talent for drawing, so much so that his father decided to send him to study with a painter, Giuseppe Baldini, at the age of 15. It was in Baldini's workshop that Fattori began to define his own personal style. At the age of 21, Fattori left his hometown of Livorno for Florence and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, his academic career was uneven; on the one hand, financial problems forced him to work and neglect his classes; on the other, the historical moment. In 1848, he took part in the Risorgimento uprisings. Fattori believed in the unification of Italy, and his paintings show not only his political passion, but also some of the historical events in which he was a protagonist.

Undoubtedly, what most shaped his professional career was the siege of his hometown, Livorno, by the Austrians. This battle fueled his patriotism and desire for freedom. But it wasn't just the conflicts with Austria that interested him. Fattori read extensively and loved classical literature. For this reason, in 1850, he entered a very exclusive circle of anti-academic artists who met at the famous Caffè Michelangelo in Florence.

He left this circle in 1852 to begin his professional career completely independently. This was a turning point for Fattori, who started to be successful with family portraits, landscapes, and vignettes. During this period, he founded the Macchiaioli movement, with Telemaco Signorini, an emerging Florentine painter who he met at the Caffè Michelangelo.

On June 4, 1859, the Battle of Magenta broke out, one of the most famous episodes of the Second Italian War of Independence. The event profoundly affected the two artists, so much so that Fattori painted one of the most important paintings of his career (named after the clash between the Austrians and the French-Piedmontese). However, the canvas does not depict the conflict, but rather the return of the wounded after the battle. In this work, Fattori set aside his political passion to highlight the emotions and human side of war.

In the early 1860s, Fattori returned home to his native Livorno. During this phase of his life, Fattori married his fiancée, Settimia Vannucci, who he had already been dating for six years. The marriage did not last long, as a year after the wedding, Settimia contracted tuberculosis, dying from it in 1867. Fattori continued to paint, despite the intense pain. Numerous works portray her, from "Portrait of the First Wife" to "La Rotonda di Palmieri."

Meanwhile, the political mood in the country changed. In 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was declared, but without the renewal the painter had hoped for. It was a difficult time, filled with disappointment and bitterness. During this period, the artist found comfort in his friend Diego Martelli. Fattori often visited him in Castiglioncello, and during these trips he began to paint the Maremma.

His career reached a turning point in 1869, when he was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. In the 1870s, he cultivated his passion for foreign painting and even traveled to Paris. During this period, the Impressionist movement was blossoming in France, but Fattori was not captivated by it. Instead, social themes returned forcefully in his works: in 1880 (a very productive period), he completed the canvas "The Battle of Custoza."

In 1885, he met Marianna Bigazzi (then a widow), and she became his wife a few years later. Meanwhile, his career continued to gain enormous success, and in 1890, after exhibiting in Italy's most important galleries, he received a special mention at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Fattori earned international recognition and produced magnificent etchings and engravings. In 1903, he lost his second wife. But four years later, in Rome, he met Fanny Martinelli, his third wife.

Giovanni Fattori died in Florence on August 30, 1908, at the age of 82, just a few months after his wife.

When Giovanni Fattori entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 1846, the institution was still firmly anchored in neoclassical principles. Training followed a strictly codified path: it began with drawing from plaster casts of ancient statues, continued with the study of anatomy, and culminated in the painting of historical and mythological subjects. Masters of the time, such as Giuseppe Bezzuoli and Enrico Pollastrini, perpetuated the academic tradition that favored precision of drawing, nobility of subject matter, and idealization of form.

During these formative years, Fattori demonstrated remarkable technical skill, but his works still fully reflected neoclassical aesthetics. Paintings such as "Self-Portrait" (1850) display impeccable traditional technique with a masterful use of Leonardo-like chiaroscuro and a balanced composition according to academic canons. His first participation in official competitions with works on historical-mythological subjects testifies to his early commitment to the traditional artistic system.

Caffè Michelangiolo on Via Larga in Florence represented a crucial crossroads for Fattori and for Italian painting, marking the birth of the Macchiaioli movement. Starting in the early 1850s, a diverse group of intellectuals, painters, critics, and writers gathered here, united by the desire to renew Italian art. Diego Martelli, an art critic and patron, Telemaco Signorini, Silvestro Lega, Vito D'Ancona, Odoardo Borrani, and many others animated passionate discussions on the need to transcend academic art.

The "macchia" was not simply a painting technique, but a true artistic philosophy. Instead of constructing form through traditional chiaroscuro, the Macchiaioli favored contrasts of color and light, creating volume and depth through bold color combinations. This technical revolution allowed them to capture natural light effects immediately and effectively, freeing painting from the need to meticulously "finish" every detail.

Fattori embraced this new aesthetic with particular conviction, developing a personal interpretation of the "macchia" (macchia) that was characterized by a greater constructive solidity than some of his colleagues. His academic training provided him with the technical foundation necessary to harness this new expressive freedom. Works such as "French Soldiers of '59" (1859) already demonstrate a full mastery of the Macchiaioli technique, with alternating areas of pure color creating extraordinarily effective effects of light and shadow.

Fattori's membership in the Macchiaioli movement also coincided with his patriotic commitment. During the Second War of Independence (1859), the painter followed the troops as an artistic correspondent, an experience that greatly enriched his understanding of military reality and profoundly influenced his subsequent work.

Subsequently, the artist began to develop plein air painting. For him, this was not simply a stylistic choice, but rather reflected a conception of art as a tool for direct knowledge of reality. His stays in Maremma, beginning in the 1860s, allowed him to develop an intimate understanding of the Tuscan landscape and rural life, themes that would become central to his work.

The work "In Vedetta" (1872), on the other hand, represents the pinnacle of his military art. This painting, with its extraordinary compositional synthesis, portrays two cavalry soldiers observing on a hill. The macchia technique here reaches its absolute maturity: the figures stand out against the sky with a monumentality reminiscent of the Renaissance masters, yet the chromatic approach is thoroughly modern. The Mediterranean light, filtered through the Tuscan atmosphere, creates backlighting effects that enhance the drama of the scene.

"La Rotonda di Palmieri" (1866), on the other hand, demonstrates his skill in portraying contemporary bourgeois life. Set in the gardens of Livorno, the work captures a moment of leisure in nineteenth-century society with a technique that anticipates certain Impressionist approaches. The seemingly spontaneous composition is actually crafted with expert balance, while the rendering of light filtered through the vegetation demonstrates a complete mastery of the Macchiaioli technique.

His most famous work, "Il Campo Italiano alla Battaglia di Magenta" (The Italian Camp at the Battle of Magenta) (1861–1862), represents a unique example of Italian historical painting. Fattori rejects traditional celebratory rhetoric to offer a raw and realistic vision of war. The battlefield, with its dead and wounded, is depicted with a truthfulness that shocked his contemporaries. The Macchiaioli technique here proves perfectly functional to the subject, allowing for the dramatic atmosphere to be conveyed.

Fattori's work offers an extraordinarily rich glimpse into post-unification Italy. His military scenes are not limited to rhetorical celebration, but explore the soldier's human reality. Works such as "Soldati a riposo" and "Il riposo" depict soldiers captured in moments of repose, with a sensitivity that anticipates certain advances in modern psychology.

The Maremma landscapes constitute another fundamental element of his work. The Maremma was not simply a picturesque subject, but represented rural Italy in transformation. Paintings such as "Il fattore" or "Bovi al carro" document an agricultural world still tied to ancestral rhythms, yet already affected by the changes of national unification. His increasingly free and synthetic technique captures the essence of this landscape with a poetry that transcends mere documentation.

Fattori's portraiture, on the other hand, reveals his ability to penetrate bourgeois psychology. The portraits of Livorno's society, from "Signora Martelli" to "Ritratto della figliastra" show a painter attentive to the social and cultural changes of the time. The Macchiaioli technique, applied to portraiture, allows to capture not only of the physical resemblance but also the subject's psychological atmosphere.

Fattori's death in 1908 symbolically coincided with the closure of nineteenth-century Italian art. His legacy, however, proved to be crucial for the development of modern art in Italy. The lessons of the Macchiaioli, filtered through his sensibility, represented an antidote to decadent aestheticism and provided the foundation for a modern and conscious realism.

Fattori's critical recognition as one of the greatest nineteenth-century Italian painters was consolidated throughout the twentieth century. His ability to combine technical innovation and human depth, formal experimentation and social commitment, made him a model for generations of artists. His works, which document post-unification Italian society with extraordinary effectiveness, still retain a freshness and modernity that confirm their historical greatness.

This great artist represents a crucial chapter in the history of Italian art, and an example of how art can become a lucid and passionate interpreter of its time, transforming the observation of reality into a form of profound and enduring knowledge.