Macchiaioli

The macchiaioli are a group of Italian artists. They worked from 1855 to 1865 in Florence and are committed against academicism and in favor of realism.

Main representatives were Telemaco Signorini, Giovanni Fattori, Adriano Cecioni, Silvestro Lega and Giuseppe Abbati. The term macchiaioli is derived from the Italian word macchia, which means as much as spot ( a second meaning is scrub, maquis ). The term was first used ironically in the Gazzetta del Popolo. As models of their kind of artistic activity the artist Gustave Courbet and Corot apply. They also made ( as Courbet and Millet ) often simple, working people in the foreground of the picture. Characteristic were the spot-like areas of color, a strong light-dark contrast, and the fact that all images were open-air paintings to directly reflect the nature. Details have been reduced to the bare essentials such figures are for example shown schematically.

Meeting of the group was the Caffè Michelangiolo in Florence.

The group influenced the School of Resina in Naples ( with, among others, Giuseppe de Nittis ).

Similar artists were found at this time in France in the school of Barbizon. These romantic and realist painters were modeled on the macchiaioli, as well as the Hague School in the Netherlands. Many of these Italian, French and Dutch painters approached later Impressionism.