Macchiaioli (Italian art group)

The "painters of stains" are among the reinventors of landscape painting in Europe. Defined as a group by those who formed it and the early art critics, these painters from Florence and its surroundings worked essentially between about 1850 and 1870. Well documented, their existence is intrinsically linked to the Caffé Michelangelo—formerly close to the Duomo—where the painters had met since 1848. There, they used to debate, argue, drink and enjoy the bohemian life modeled on the Parisian’s experience of Borrani. Far from the Academy, they elaborated the Macchiaioli’s motto "Our art [aims] to describe the impressions received from the reality"—as stated by Adriano Cecioni, the theoretician of the group. Ideologically concerned with the depiction the urban and human everyday life, the Macchiaioli transformed the local artistic panorama and is considered one of the first avant-garde art movements in Italy.

Brief History

During the turbulent decades of the mid-nineteenth century in Florence, the Macchiaioli emerged as an alternative to academic teaching. The history of the movement can be broken into four stages: the early years of the Caffè Michelangelo, between 1848 and 1855; the first "revolution," 1855–1860; the experiences of Castiglioncello and Piagentina, 1861–1870; the crepuscule of the group, marked by the altercation between the young Signorini and the "pope of the macchia" De Tivoli, in 1863.

Elaborated in the urban context, the paintings of the Macchiaioli recalled the radical approach of the Barbizon school in France by painting in the open air—the "plein-air" practice. Formed in the early 1850s, the Macchiaioli’s cenacle was indeed very informed about the aesthetic and social revolutions of the French capital. It is assumed that this group was launched by several artists—who called themselves Effettisti ("effectists")—after their return from Paris in the mid-1850s. The group’s work centered on a common attraction for copying and studying detailed motifs taken from nature. The artists also worked at recreating the rural identity of their region, taking advantage of panoramic views of Tuscany’s fields and villages and of the hills surrounding Florence. Another common theme was the depiction of elegant women from the city in the countryside.

Besides the aesthetic and iconographic evidences, the Macchiaioli also shared a common fascination for the ideology of Pierre Joseph Proudhon, a well-known anarchist, whose De la Justice was Signorini’s bedside book. They also took part to the Risorgimento and depicted it, as in Fattori Garibaldi’s Entrance in Palermo (1860), and eventually joined the army at different periods—Federico Zandomeneghi (1841–1917), Signorini, Diego Martelli (1839–1896), Adriano Cecioni (1836–1886), Borrani, Giuseppe Abbati (1836–1868). Their involvement in the revolutionary events which contributed to change the whole peninsula recalls Courbet’s own career. Like him, Giuseppe Abbati died poor and isolated. Sernesi died after being shot on the banks of the Lake of Garda on July 16, 1866.

The Macchiaioli included Odoardo Borrani (1832–1905), Raffaello Sernesi (1838–1866), Serafino De Tivoli (1826–1892), Telemaco Signorini (1835–1901), Vito D’Ancona (1825–1884), and Giovanni Fattori (1825–1908). The strength and variety of the group can be seen in the work of Saverio Altamura (1826–1897), the first historian of the movement and one of the few to acheive success and official celebrations (Esposizione Nazionale, Florence, 1861), Giovanni Boldini (1842–1931), who settled his workshop in Paris in 1871, and Vincenzo Cabianca (1827–1920), who ended his career in Rome after being the "most violent, the most unconditional" of the Macchiaioli. Silvestro Lega (1826–1895), the most poetical and independent of the group, produced some of the movement’s best known works.

Overview

In 1901, Fattori explained one of the core distinctions of the group. "Before the Maremmian’s heredity of Diego, while living compactly in Castiglioncello, we achieved a new artistic step called the stain… what was this stain? It was the robustness of the bodies into the light." The term "macchia" referred to a double concept: the stains of ink were usually associated with children’s works of art and it can be said that the uncommon facture of the Macchiaioli did disconcert the public; painting "in stains" was also a common term used to talk about illegal acts. It first appeared as a term in art criticism during the sixteenth century—Vasari used the term to describe Titian’s late technique—but became more than a matter of technique with the new generation of Florentine artists. It was indeed the most appropriate way to embody reality for them. Supported by the art newspaper Gazzettino delle arti del disegno, launched by Diego Martelli in 1867, the "macchia" embodied the battle elaborated by young artists against the "form." Color and tone became the means of portraying the effects of reality.

This conception of art and aesthetics was revolutionary. Despite its ideological importance and anticipatory dimension, the Macchiaioli have remained in the shadow of the impressionists. Rediscovered more than a century after its existence, the group was celebrated in several international exhibitions, including the Forte di Belvedere in Florence, 1976; Grand Palais in Paris, 1978; and Tokyo, 1979. In the twenty-first century, this group of artists is among the most popular of the nineteenth century avant-gardes. Ten temporary exhibitions devoted to the works of the Macchiaioli were organized between 2010 and 2015.

Bibliography

Avanzi, Beatrice, and Marie-Paule Vial, eds. Les Macchiaioli, 1850–1874. Des Impressionnistes Italiens? Paris: Flammarion, 2013. Print.

Boime, Albert. The Art of the Macchia and the Risorgimento. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. Print.

Broude, Norma. The Macchiaioli: Italian Painters of the Nineteenth Century. New Haven: Yale UP, 1987. Print.

Dini, Francesca, ed. The Macchiaioli, Italian Masters of Realism. Fukuyama: Fukuyama Museum of Modern Art, 2009. Print.

---. I Macchiaioli. Sentimento del vero. Milan: Torino, 2007. Print.

Giudici, Lorella. Lettere dei Macchiaioli. Milan: Abscondita, 2008. Print.

Maffioli, Monica, ed. I Macchiaioli e la fotografia. Florence: Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia, 2008. Print.

Mazzocca, Fernando, and Carlo Sisi, eds. I Macchiaioli prima dell’Impressionismo. Venice: Marsilio, 2003. Print.