Macchiaioli Exhibition in Brescia Features Unseen Works from Private Collections

A major exhibition on the Macchiaioli movement is underway at Palazzo Martinengo in Brescia, curated by Davide Dotti and Francesca Dini. The show presents a large number of paintings from private collections, many previously unseen. It extends beyond the traditional chronological boundaries of the Tuscan movement, featuring works by second-generation Macchiaioli and late works by founding fathers. Highlights include a caricature watercolor by Adriano Cecioni of artists at Caffè Michelangelo, and works linking Tuscany to the Brescia area, such as Giovanni Fattori's "Assalto alla Madonna della Scoperta" inspired by the Battle of San Martino and Telemaco Signorini's "Il cimitero di Solferino." A section dedicated to Castiglioncello features Odoardo Borrani and Raffaello Sernesi, alongside Fattori's portrait of Diego Martelli. The exhibition also includes Fattori's "Silvestro Lega che dipinge sugli scogli" and Borrani's "Le cucitrici di camice rosse." The final section focuses on the 1880s-1890s, with naturalists Eugenio Cecconi, Francesco Gioli, and Angelo Tommasi, and culminates in Fattori's brutal "Pro patria mori," depicting a dead soldier approached by pigs, symbolizing disillusionment with colonial policy. The Accademia Carrara di Bergamo contributed a series of Fattori's engravings.