I Macchiaioli

The term "Macchiaioli" defines the most important group of Italian artists of the 19th century.
Independent and rebellious spirits who abandon the historical and mythological scenes of neoclassicism and romanticism to open themselves to a realistic and immediate painting, without preparatory drawings, painting precisely "in stains" dense and colourful everyday life, with short brushstrokes that make the subjects much more truthful. The outlines in their paintings are blurred in an attempt to reproduce reality as it appears at a glance.

Active in the 50s and 60s, the Macchiaioli - whose main exponents were Telemaco Signorini, Giovanni Fattori and Silvestro Lega - met at the Caffè Michelangelo in Florence to discuss and confront ideas on "modern" painting. They exhibited their works in public for the first time at the National Exhibition of 1861, receiving contemptuous criticism ("macchiaioli" is the derogatory term with which they were defined in 1862 by the conservative and Catholic newspaper "Nuova Europa").

Like all artists who mark a change, they were not immediately understood, but in the 20th century they were revalued and today they are considered the precursors of Impressionism, occupying an increasingly important place in the history of European art.

The main protagonists of the movement were, apart from the aforementioned Signorini, Fattori and Lega, also Giuseppe Abbati, Cristiano Banti, Odoardo Borrani, Vito d'Ancona, Giovanni Boldini, Federico Zandomeneghi and various others.

Through a corpus of over 80 highly significant works of the movement, the exhibition I Macchiaioli, which will take place in the splendid setting of the Revoltella Museum in Trieste from November 19, 2022 to April 10, 2023, tells the entire artistic experience of the Macchiaioli, starting from 1855.

On the occasion of the exhibition, you can visit the wonderful Museo Revoltella, Galleria d'arte moderna di Trieste with a single entrance ticket. It boasts a prestigious collection: starting from the rich legacy of the homonymous baron Pasquale Revoltella - who made it his home until 1869 - to reach the most recent acquisitions with works by great artists such as Fattori, De Nittis, Sironi, Carrà, De Chirico, Fontana, Pomodoro, Hayez and many other leading figures of modern and contemporary art.