Around the middle of the last century, the most important and active movement of Italian nineteenth century was born in Florence:that of the Macchiaioli. The school of the Macchiaioli was begun as a contraposition to the academicism that had characterised the first half of the century, with its historical paintings.

The theory was that the philosophy of this pictorial movement, that chronologically preceded French impressionism, and that for certain aspects was similar to it, was that of the "spot". The Macchiaioli thought that the painter should reproduce exactly what the human eye can see:therefore, coloured spots made of light and shadows. The greatest representative of the movement was the painter Giovanni Fattori, born in Leghorn in 1825. And it was for the most representative painter of the "spot" that Leghorn named a museum.

The Giovanni Fattori Municipal Museum is situated inside the park of Villa Fabbricotti, in a nineteenthcentury palace. The museum Hoses a collection of paintings by Fattori, among which Pagliaio, I Buoi, Antignano, Sulla Spiaggia, Torre Rossa, Butteri, Battaglia di San Martino, La Signora Martelli, Ritratto della Moglie. The museum also displays works of other Macchiaioli painters, such as Telemaco Signorini and Silvestro Lega. In the museum are also such works as Ritratto by Arturo Conti, Il Fienaiolo, and Testa di Ciociaro by Plinio Novellini, a painter from Leghorn and a pupil of Fattori, who left the Macchiaioli movement to go to "divisionism".

Apart from the nineteenth-century painters, the museum owns some ancient works such as La Madonna col Bambino that is attributed to Sandro Botticelli and the Crocifissione by Neri di Bicci. Pag. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5