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The Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori is the civic contemporary art museum of Livorno, located in Villa Mimbelli on Via San Jacopo in Acquaviva 65, a few blocks west of the Terraza Mascagni of
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
, region of
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
, Italy.
The collection includes a number of works and biographical items associated with the native painter
Giovanni Fattori
Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825August 30, 1908) was an Italian artist, one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli. He was initially a painter of historical themes and military subjects. In his middle years, inspired by the Barbi ...
, one of the leaders of the 19th-century group known as the
Macchiaioli
The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany 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 ...
. To these works are contemporary works of other Italian
Macchiaioli
The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany 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 ...
and post-Macchiaioli painters.
History
The origins of the museum date to 1877, when the municipal administration decide to establish an art gallery to reunite paintings by contemporary Italian artists such as
Giovanni Fattori
Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825August 30, 1908) was an Italian artist, one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli. He was initially a painter of historical themes and military subjects. In his middle years, inspired by the Barbi ...
,
Enrico Pollastrini
Enrico Pollastrini (15 June 1817, Livorno – 19 January 1876, Florence) was an Italian history painter and art school director.
Life and work
He began his training as an assistant in the workshop of a local artist named Vincenzo De Bonis. In 1 ...
and
Cesare Bartolena
Cesare Bartolena (May 27, 1830 – May 14, 1903) was an Italian painter, mainly of military or battle scenes.
Biography
He was born in Livorno. He was a pupil of Enrico Pollastrini, and attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. In 1848, he vo ...
. Subsequently, the art collection was enlarged with works by
Raffaello Gambogi
Raffaello Gambogi (1874 in Livorno – 1943) was an Italian painter, mainly of urban landscapes and genre scenes.
Biography
In 1891 Gambogi obtained a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, where he studied under Giovanni Fattori. ...
,
Silvestro Lega
Silvestro Lega (8 December 1826 – 21 September 1895) was an Italian Realism (art), realist painter. He was one of the leading artists of the Macchiaioli and was also involved with the Mazzini movement.
Biography
He was born in Modigliana, nea ...
,
Guglielmo Micheli, and others.
Between the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century the collection was enriched with the acquisition of archaeological findings and a numismatic collection which was donated by Enrico Chiellini in 1893. Upon Fattori's death, in 1908, the museum purchased 250 drawings and 150 etchings from his autorship.
The new and larger museum headquarters in Piazza Guerrazzi was inaugurated in 1896. At the beginning of the 1930s, the museum was named after
Giovanni Fattori
Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825August 30, 1908) was an Italian artist, one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli. He was initially a painter of historical themes and military subjects. In his middle years, inspired by the Barbi ...
.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the museum's collection was moved out of the city. One large major work (''The Exiles of Siena'') by
Enrico Pollastrini
Enrico Pollastrini (15 June 1817, Livorno – 19 January 1876, Florence) was an Italian history painter and art school director.
Life and work
He began his training as an assistant in the workshop of a local artist named Vincenzo De Bonis. In 1 ...
was however destroyed by the Allied bombardment. At the end of the conflict, part of its collection was placed on the second floor of Villa Fabbricotti and the rest was located in the various municipal offices and warehouses. At the same time the collection was enriched with works by Italian artists such as
Plinio Nomellini
Plinio Nomellini (1866–1943) was an Italian painter.
Biography
Nomellini was born in Livorno in 1866. In 1885 he enrolled at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Giovanni Fattori and formed friendships with Telemaco Sign ...
,
Guglielmo Micheli,
Serafino De Tivoli
Serafino De Tivoli (March 18261892) was an Italian painter of the Macchiaioli group.
Biography
He was born in Livorno. After initial study of literature at a religious private school in Florence, he began his artistic training under Carlo Mark ...
,
Oscar Ghiglia
Oscar Alberto Ghiglia (born 13 August 1938) is an Italian classical guitarist.
Biography
Early years
Born in Livorno to an artistic family – his father and grandfather were both famed painters, his mother an accomplished pianist – Oscar Ghig ...
, and
Ulvi Liegi
Ulvi Liegi (born Luigi Mosè Levi; 1858–1939) was an Italian painter and printmaker. Part of the Post-macchiaioli movement, he painted various cityscapes of Livorno and depictions of Livornese daily life.
Biography
Luigi Levi, who signed h ...
. It was also purchases a cartoon attributed to
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (, ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and ...
.
In 1994 the museum, consisting partially of the collection, was moved to Villa Mimbelli, inaugurated in 1994 by the President of the Republic
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012) was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centre ...
.
Collections
The ground and first floors of the museum are adorned with decorations, furnishings and draperies of the 18th century style with frescoes by Annibale Gatti.
In these two floors are shown works by
Enrico Pollastrini
Enrico Pollastrini (15 June 1817, Livorno – 19 January 1876, Florence) was an Italian history painter and art school director.
Life and work
He began his training as an assistant in the workshop of a local artist named Vincenzo De Bonis. In 1 ...
,
Guglielmo Micheli,
Ulvi Liegi
Ulvi Liegi (born Luigi Mosè Levi; 1858–1939) was an Italian painter and printmaker. Part of the Post-macchiaioli movement, he painted various cityscapes of Livorno and depictions of Livornese daily life.
Biography
Luigi Levi, who signed h ...
, Oscar Ghiglia,
Giovanni Bartolena
Giovanni Bartolena (24 June 1866 - 16 February 1942) was an Italian painter, mainly of landscapes, but also of landscapes with animals.
Biography
He was born near Livorno. As a young man, at his family's villa, he indulged in his love of riding ho ...
, Leonetto Campiello and
Mario Puccini. The main exhibition of the museum is at the second floor, where are displayed the paintings by
Giovanni Fattori
Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825August 30, 1908) was an Italian artist, one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli. He was initially a painter of historical themes and military subjects. In his middle years, inspired by the Barbi ...
and other
macchiaioli
The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany 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 ...
as
Silvestro Lega
Silvestro Lega (8 December 1826 – 21 September 1895) was an Italian Realism (art), realist painter. He was one of the leading artists of the Macchiaioli and was also involved with the Mazzini movement.
Biography
He was born in Modigliana, nea ...
,
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 ...
,
Vincenzo Cabianca
Vincenzo Cabianca (June 21, 1827, Verona – March 21, 1902, Rome) was an Italian painter of the Macchiaioli group.
Biography
He was born in Verona in modest circumstances. He began his artistic training at the Verona Academy under Giovanni Cali ...
,
Giovanni Boldini
Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 – 11 January 1931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter who lived and worked in Paris for most of his career. According to a 1933 article in ''Time'' magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" becaus ...
,
Adolfo Tommasi
Adolfo Tommasi (1851 in Livorno – 1933 in Florence) was an Italian painter.
Biography
Having left Livorno, Tommasi moved to Florence, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts and met Silvestro Lega, who taught Adolfo’s younger cousins ...
,
Angiolo Tommasi
Angiolo Tommasi ( Livorno, 1858 - Torre del Lago Puccini, Lucca, 1923) was an Italian painter, active in the Macchiaioli movement. He was the brother of the painter Ludovico and cousin of the painter Adolfo Tommasi; all three were influential fo ...
and
Ludovico Tommasi
Ludovico Tommasi (1866 in Livorno – 1941 in Florence) was an Italian painter.
Biography
Inspired by the example of his elder brother Angiolo and his cousin Adolfo, Ludovico Tommasi devoted himself to painting, developing his art in close cont ...
. In the other halls are the post-macchiaioli as
Eugenio Cecconi
Eugenio Cecconi (September 8, 1842 – December 19, 1903) was an Italian painter. He is most noted for his paintings of hunting scenes and the Italian countryside, however his work also includes many representations of Oriental themes.
Early lif ...
,
Vittorio Matteo Corcos
Vittorio Matteo Corcos (4 October 1859 – 8 November 1933) was an Italian painter, known for his portraits. Many of his genre works depict winsome and finely dressed young men and women, in moments of repose and recreation.
Biography
He was bo ...
and
divisionism
Divisionism, also called chromoluminarism, was the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches which interacted optically..Homer, William I. ''Seurat and the Science of P ...
as
Benvenuto Benvenuti and
Plinio Nomellini
Plinio Nomellini (1866–1943) was an Italian painter.
Biography
Nomellini was born in Livorno in 1866. In 1885 he enrolled at the Florence Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied under Giovanni Fattori and formed friendships with Telemaco Sign ...
. Giovanni Fattori was the main representative artist of the macchiaioli, some of his paintings exhibited are: ''Carica di Cavalleria a Montebello'' (1862), ''La Signora Martelli a Castiglioncello'' (1867), ''Assalto alla Madonna della Scoperta'' (1868), ''Giornata grigia'' (1893), ''Mandrie maremmane'' (1893), ''Lungomare ad Antignano'' (1894), ''Ritratto della terza moglie'' (1905).
References
External links
Museo civico Giovanni Fattori (Italian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori
Giovanni Fattori
Art museums and galleries in Tuscany
Art museums and galleries established in 1877
1877 establishments in Italy
Biographical museums in Italy
Museums devoted to one artist