The Macchiaioli as "Proto-Impressionists": Realism, Popular Science and the Re-shaping of Macchia Romanticism, 1862-1886

NORMA F. BROUDE

In the current literature of nineteenth-century Italian painting, the In its original form, as an esthetic based upon the principles of Tuscan Macchiaioli are frequently described as "proto-Impression­ French Romanticism,4 the macchia flourished as an organized and ists," as an early group of plein air painters, who, though less dar­ productive movement i~ Florence for a relatively brief period, ap­ ing and unquestionably less brilliant than their better-known and proximately seven years, between 1855 and 1862.5 By the early somewhat younger contemporaries, the French Impressionists, fol­ 1860's, new influences from France-in particular, word of Cour­ lowed nevertheless a line of inquiry which surely anticipated bet's Realism-had begun to reach Florence.6 In 1862, Telemaco theirs.1 Signorini's expression of dissatisfaction with qualities in his work This approach to the Macchiaioli as proto-impressionistic "patch" which he now considered to be "troppo soggettivo e individuale" is painters, though misleading, has informed much of the scholarly undoubtedly a reflection of the inroads that had already been made and critical work written in the field since the resurgence of interest into the aesthetic philosophy of the Italians by the standard of ob­ in the Macchiaioli early in this century. It has been fostered not jective naturalism.7 In this sense, 1862, the year in which the only by a persistent misinterpretation of the name of the group and macchia is said to have died, does indeed mark a definite turning by a biased emphasis upon only a certain area of its work,2 but also point in the history of the movement. For while several of the by an uncritical acceptance on the part of scholars of a series of es­ Macchiaioli had been sketching from nature as early as 1854,8 and says by the sculptor and early friend of the Macchiaioli, Adriano many of them, after 1859 especially, had turned increasingly to Cecioni, essays in which the original program and activities of the contemporary rural life for thematic material, the attitude with group are described in terms which would clearly seem to relate which they had approached this material had been essentially a Ro­ the Italian movement to French Impressionism.3 These often-quoted mantic one. During the early sixties, however, certain aspects of and highly influential essays, however, were written by Cecioni not this attitude began to change, and gradually a few of the artists in the early 1860's, as an immediate response to events witnessed in the original group began to look upon their art more exclusively and experiences shared with his painter-friends, but in the early as the recording of visual experience than as the reflection of the 1880's, at a remove of more than twenty-five years from the actual feelings which these experiences had evoked. Among the Macchia­ inception of the macchia movement. The prevailing assumption of ioli and their friends, those who were most deeply influenced in Cecioni's accuracy and reliability as a reporter, therefore, though their own work by the rising tide of Realism were Telemaco Si­ unchallenged by modern scholarship, is nevertheless unfounded, gnorini and Adriano Cecioni, both of whom are thought of today for it fails to take into consideration the impressive time lapse in­ as the principal theorists and chroniclers of the original macchia volved and the actual circumstances and influences under which movement. Cecioni's late essays were written. Our purpose here will be to sort By 1862, the macchia, understood in Romantic terms as the po­ out the various influences which, in the 1860's and seventies, did in etically evocative chiaroscuro "effect" of a painting, was no longer fact seriously modify and re-shape Cecioni's thought, and to trace a new or controversial idea for progressive artists in Florence, many the process by which the original concept of the macchia underwent of whom were already beginning to look toward Realism for the a significant theoretical transformation in the hands of Cecioni and current and vital issues of the day. Nevertheless, many of the values other late chroniclers of the movement as well. and aesthetic principles which the Macchiaioli had derived from their

1 See, e.g., Lionello Venturi, Italian Painting from Caravaggio to Modi­ that "verso il 1862 questa ricerca artistica che aveva fatto il suo gliani, New York, 1952, 100, 115-16; also, Enrico Somare, Signorini, tempo mori senza onor di sepoltura" (Telemaco Signorini, "Cose Milan, 1926, 29. d'arte," Il Risorgimento, 1874; reprinted in Somare, Signorini, 256- 2 See Norma F. Broude, "The Macchiaioli: Effect and Expression in 57). Nineteenth-Century Florentine Painting," Art Bulletin, 52, 1970, 11- 6 The art of Courbet was apparently not one of the initial influences 21. upon the Italians, none of whom gave any indication of even having 3 Cecioni's collected writings have appeared in the foliowing editions: been aware of the Pavillon du Realisme in 1855 (see Roberto Longhi, Adriano Cecioni, Scritti e ricordi, ed. Gustavo Uzielli, Florence, 1905; "II Impressionismo e il gusto degli italiani," intro. to John Rewald, Adriano Cecioni, Opere e scritti, ed. Enrico Somare, Milan, 1932. Storia dell'Impressionismo, trans. Antonio Boschetto, Florence, 1949, 4 For a discussion of the aesthetic and its relationship to French xi). Although the Italians had in all probability been exposed to Romanticism, see Broude, "The Macchiaioli," 15-18. Courbet's work by 1861 (in that year, Signorini, Cabianca and Banti 5 These dates are suggested by Telemaco Signorini, who, in an article made their own first trip to Paris), we find nowhere in the writings written in 1874, describes the visit of three Italian artists to the Paris of the artists or their associates any indication of precisely when it Exposition of 1855 as the event primarily responsible for the birth was that the Macchiaioli first became seriously interested in the of the new aesthetic, while further on in the same article, he declares Frenchman's work. MACCHIAIOLI 405

experiments of the 1850's were not entirely or immediately super­ clio reconstruction of that which has first been grasped and "created seded by the newer ideas. The change in their thinking took place with the mind."10 gradually, it would appear, and even as late as 1873, we find echoes Despite these similarities, however, there are several indications of the older attitudes in an essay by Adriano Cecioni. Though not in this essay of an important difference between Cecioni' s aesthetic dealing directly with the Macchiaioli, this essay, entitled "On the assumptions and those of the older, Romantic school. He writes: Importance of Technical Facility in Art," provides important in­ The choice is free; the subject, reality; the aim, truth. Everything is sights into the practices and procedures which then prevailed among beautiful in nature from the point of view of art because everything is the Florentines and indicates the extent to which the Realist aesthetic, made up of the same elements, i.e., light, color, chiaroscuro and drawing. by the early seventies, had affected the conception then current of Differences in thematic choice do not account for the greater or lesser beauty of a work of art.... the relationship between art and nature. Cecioni writes: Everything must be sure and decisive, without the sacrifice of the smallest detail; the total effect must be obtained by means of that in­ Art, considered today as interpretation of nature, has a great mission finite gradation which is in nature. to accomplish. Art must be the medium for the reproduction of that A field, for example, is one color and, at the same time, thousands of which impresses us in nature; and when, with a work of art, we succeed colors, by virtue of the play which light creates over it, and because of in producing the same sensation, only then will art have fulfilled its the many small plantlets intermingled with the grass, all different in function .... form and color; all of this must be interpreted and distinguished by Art must be that which surprises nature in both her normal and means of extremely fine observation.11 unusual moments and effects. Since this surprise, embodied in a work of art, succeeds in producing the same effect produced in us by nature, The fine optical distinctions upon which the writer dwells here raise the means employed must be the result of serious consideration. Nat~re certain questions. What precisely, we should ask, does Cecioni now produces her effects without laboring excessively over them, and the mean when he speaks of the sensations that are evoked and repro­ artist must be able to do the same thing. Among the artist's most essen­ tial skills is that of quick analysis, by means of which he must acquire duced by a work of art? By "sensazione" in this context, is he refer­ the mastery that will enable him to seize those strange and wondrous ring (as did the Barbizon painters and the original Macchiaioli) to effects that do not last long enough to be tranquilly copied. Proportion, something subjective and emotional in the artist's experience, or is point of view, chiaroscuro and the relationship among the tones are the most important things .... It is necessary to determine everything the allusion now to something that is more purely visual and ob­ before beginning to paint, and then, with the aid of a serious elaboration, jective? to begin to render with colors that which has first been created with the Answers to these questions emerge from yet another essay by mind. This faculty, this certainty of execution, must be clearly evident in the work and must be considered as the fundamental basis of art.... Cecioni, this one written three years later, in 1877. Here, the tone The power of the effects must result from the correctness of the in­ leaves no further doubt about the nature of the author's ideological tonation and not from the alteration of certain hues, as certain charla­ commitment. Commenting upon the development of modern sculp­ tans, great and small, have done and still do for the sake of shocking. .• ,9 ture in Tuscany, Cecioni explained: [The moderns] devoted themselves to the study of nature ... and Like the generation of 1830 in France, after whose art the Mac­ those things in nature which had been omitted, neglected and overlooked chiaioli had patterned their own aesthetic in the late 1850's, Cecioni by the ancients became the principal concern of their studies; and, still believes that the work of art exists as the embodiment of the whereas the ancients had subjected nature to corrections, the moderns did not permit themselves this liberty, and, always mindful of the idea artist's experiences before nature and that its function, as a work of that everything is beautiful in nature from the point of view of art, they art, is to reproduce in the spectator the same sensations that had scrupulously reproduced everything that fell before their eyes. And thus, originally been produced in the artist by nature. Chiaroscuro, which as a result of their experiments, they became convinced that feeling is conveyed entirely by technical means.12 Cecioni refers to here as "the correctness of the intonation," is still considered to be a more powerful vehicle for artistic expression Summed up here is the positivist position of the Realist, expressed, than color, and the artist's direct sketching activities in the out-of­ interestingly enough, in terms that very nearly paraphrase Cour­ doors are still looked upon as the essential prelude to the later stu- bet's famous manifesto of 1861.13 As early as 1870, there is docu-

7 "X" [Telemaco Signorini], "Alcune parole sulla Esposizione Artistica 12 Cecioni, "Concetti d'arte sull'Esposizione di Napoli del 1877," Opere, nelle sale della Societa Promotrice," Macchiaioli Toscani d'Europa, 65. intro. and notes by Mario Borgiotti and Emilio Cecchi, Florence, 1963, 13 Compare Cecioni's statements of 1873 and 1877 with the following 22. doctrine enunciated by Courbet: "Je tiens aussi que la peinture est un 8 According to Signorini, he and Odoardo Borrani began to make stud­ art essentiellement concret et ne peut consister que dans la repre­ ies from nature together in 1854. See Signorini, "Cronologia auto­ sentation des choses reelles et existantes . . . Le beau est dans la biografica," in Somare, Signorini, 268. nature, et se rencontre dans la realite sous les formes les plus di­ 9 Cecioni, "Dell'importanza tecnica nell'arte," April 18, 1873, Opere, verses. Des qu'on l'y trouve, il appartient a l'art, ou plutot a !'artiste 11-12. This and all subsequent translations, unless otherwise indi­ qui sait l'y voir. Des que le beau est reel et visible, il a en lui-meme cated, are my own. son expression artistique. Mais !'artiste n'a pas le droit d'amplifier 10 For a comparison of these ideas with statements by Theodore Rous­ cette expression. II ne peut y toucher qu'en risquant de la denaturer, seau concerning his own procedures and techniques, see Broude, et par suite de l'affaiblir. Lebeau donne par la nature est superieur a "The Macchiaioli," 16. - toutes les conventions de !'artiste" (Gustave Courbet, "Manifeste 11 Cecioni, "Dell'importanza tecnica nell'arte," Opere, 11-12. (Here, and 1861," Courrier du Dimanche, December 25, 1861, in Charles Leger, in all quotations below, the emphases appear in the original texts.) Courbet, Paris, 1929, 87). The Art Bulletin

mentary evidence of Cecioni's personal admiration for Courbet, ardor and all at a single sitting, so that the color, applied alla prima, re­ and it would seem that by the early seventies he had read and ab­ tains all of its freshness. Hence the originality and extraordinary power of his mode of execution.16 sorbed the dictates of the Frenchman's manifesto, relying upon them as the ideological foundation for his own subsequent writings Among the French, too, Courbet was, admired as a master of the and adopting them as a personal guide in his creative activity as a metier. Contemporary writers, like Thon~-Biirger, were greatly im­ sculptor as well.14 pressed by the decisiveness of his execution and the unparalleled While Cecioni is now apparently an exponent of Realist doctrine, freshness of his touch, "cette touche franche qui semble enlever sur there are still features in his rhetoric which seem to derive from les objets le ton et le forme pour les transposer sur la toile."17 Tech­ his earlier Romantic orientation. The artist, in his view, for exam­ nical skill and imitative facility, it was recognized, were among the ple, is still one who experiences before nature, and the ultimate essential tools by means of which the Realist achieved his aesthetic function of the work of art he produces is to enable a spectator to goals and fulfilled his function as an artist. undergo a similar experience. What has changed, significantly, A logical extension of the Realist's desire "to surprise nature"­ however, is both the nature of this experience and the way in which to capture and to reproduce what he sees, Cecioni's concern with it is to be communicated. No longer does the artist think in terms of the development of skill and technique on the part of the artist was moods and emotions; instead, his primary concern has become the one of the most important factors in his thinking during the 1870's. visual sensation. While subjective qualities of feeling may still be It is significant, in this regard, that the conception of the macchia as involved in his experience of nature and may even be a part of that a particular technique or mode of execution, the conception which experience which he still desires to convey, they are now considered has prevailed among scholars in the twentieth century, derives its to be so closely bound up with the visual appearance of things that authority largely, as we shall see, from the later writings of this man. their artistic expression is thought to depend entirely upon the It is not in Cecioni's writings, however, that the idea of the artist's skill in reproducing exactly what he sees. "Feeling," Cecioni macchia as "patch" makes its earliest appearance, but in a lecture now believes, "is conveyed entirely by technical means." by one of Cecioni's friends, the critic and journalist, Diego Mar­ Cecioni' s preoccupation with the general problem of technique telli, a lecture which was delivered before the Circolo filologico and technical facility in art, a preoccupation which manifests in Leghorn in 1877. Describing the artistic revolution which had itself in both the 1873 and 1877 essays, can be seen once again as taken place in Florence during the 1850's, Martelli, an early sup­ a product of his admiration for Courbet. Cecioni' s description in porter of the Macchiaioli, told his audience: " ... the macchia was 1873 of the procedures employed by the ideal painter, a painter who found in opposition to form ... it was said that form did not exist makes a thorough preliminary study of his subject so that his exe­ and since, in light, everything appears as the result of colors and cution will be sure, spontaneous and unlabored when he begins chiaroscuro, the effects of nature should therefore be obtained solely to work upon his canvas, is precisely the description of a proce­ by means of patches [macchie], either of color or of tone."18 dure which the Italians had associated with the art of Courbet ~or Like the conservative critics who had first attacked the Macchiaioli some time. The following short note, unsigned and untitled, which some fifteen years earlier, Martelli sees the macchia in opposition appeared in the Gazzettino delle Arti del disegno in 1867,15 estab­ to "form", but the meaning which he attaches to these terms is lishes that this conception of Courbet's working habits was indeed new.19 Martelli is not, it would appear, describing the conflict be­ current in Italy. It reads: tween "effect" and "drawing and finish" which had disturbed the We have picked up this report on the method of painting employed by Florentine art world in the early 1860's, but is concerned instead the noted French painter, Courbet. When he conceives an idea for a with concepts that lie more clearly within the realm of physiological painting, he puts together whatever he needs from studies and sketches, perception than that of pictorial representation. The assertion, in while at the same time he tries to think out his subject very carefully and to fix it very clearly in his mind. When it has matured sufficiently in fact, that "form did not exist," which Martelli would attribute to this manner, he sets to work on the canvas, proceeding with incredible the original Macchiaioli, appears nowhere in the contemporary liter-

14 In a letter to Signorini from Paris in 1870, Cecioni proclaimed that par lui-meme et par ses amis, Geneva, 1948, I, 218. among the artists exhibiting at the current Salon, "non c'e un artista 18 " ... fu trovata Ia macchia in opposizione alia forma ... fu detto sincero all'infuori di Courbet. Questo e il solo artista che sa mos­ che Ia forma non esisteva e siccome alia luce tutto risulta per colori trar la faccia con un'arte franca e leale" (letter dated "Parigi 24 fuglio e per chiaroscuro cosi si voile solamente per macchie ossia per colori 70," Lettere dei Macchiaioli, ed. Lamberto Vitali, Turin, 1953, 144- e per toni ottenere gli effetti del vero" (Diego Martelli, "Su 1'arte" 45). Cecioni's high opinion of Courbet was shared by his friend Sig­ [Conferenza del 1877], Scritti d' arte di Diego Martelli, ed. Antonio norini, who declared, in a letter to Cecioni from Paris three years Boschetto, Florence, 1952, 93). later: "Della tempra antica . . . non vi e che un artista, Courbet, 19 For a discussion of the meaning and importance of these terms in grande colle sue qualita e coi suoi difetti ..." (letter dated "18 giugno the earliest debates over the Macchiaioli and their art, see Broude, 73," Lettere, 107). "The Macchiaioli," 12-15. 15 This journal, the short-lived organ of the progressive movement in 20 In "An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision" (1709), Berkeley Florence, was founded in January, 1867, by Diego Martelli and was wrote: "All that is properly perceived by the visive faculty amounts published under the direction of Martelli and Telemaco Signorini to no more than colours, with their variations and different propor­ until its demise, early in 1868. It has recently appeared in a modern tions of light and shade .... What we strictly see are not solids, nor edition, ed. Alberto M. Fortuna, Florence, L. Gonnelli & Figli Editore, yet planes variously coloured: they are only diversity of colours. And 1968. some of these suggest to the mind solids, and others plane figures, 16 ''Notizie," Gazzettino delle Arti del disegno, I, n. 27-28, July 29, just as they have been experienced to be connected with the one or 1867, 223. the other" (The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, 9 vols., 17 Thore-Biirger, "Salon de 1866," passage reptinted in Courbet Raconte ed. A. A. Luce and T. E. Jessop, London, 1948-57, I, 234, 235 [SS156, MACCHIAIOLI 407

ature documenting artistic developments in Florence during the Helmholtz, can be documented with reasonable certainty.24 In lMO's and early sixties. It belongs instead to the literature of pop­ order to determine the impact which such ideas may have had upon ular science current in nineteenth-century Europe, a body of litera­ "macchia theoreticians" in Florence around 1880, we must now ex­ hue with which, it can be demonstrated, the widely read and in­ amine at length the nature of Diego Martelli's relationship to the telkctually versatile Martelli was well-acquainted. Macchiaioli and the role which he played in the intellectual life of With the assertion that "la forma non esisteva," Diego Martelli Florence during the period when "macchia theory," as it is set forth echoes a philosophical position which had been stated in the early particularly in the writings of Adriano Cecioni, was in the process eighteenth century in the writings of George Berkeley.20 Something of being evolved. of a commonplace by the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was applied to art, most notably by Goethe, who wrote, in 1810, in Diego Martelli first came into contact with the group later known the preface to his Theory of Colours: "We now assert, extraordi­ as the Macchiaioli in the year 1855, the year in which the macchia nary as it may in some degree appear, that the eye sees no form, aesthetic is said to have first crystallized.25 Perhaps the most intelli­ inasmuch as light, shade and colour together constitute that which gent and perceptive of the critics in the circle around the Macchia­ to our vision distinguishes object from object, and the parts of an ioli, the university-trained' Martelli, who founded and directed the object from each other. From these three, light, shade and colour, Gazzettino delle Arti del disegno with Signorini in 1867 and the we construct the visible world, and thus, at the same time, make Giornale artistico with Signorini and Cecioni in 1873,26 was a fre­ painting possible. . . ."21 quent contributor through the years to a variety of local journals During the nineteenth century, the philosophical notion that on matters of art and related issues.27 A beloved personal friend "matter" is merely a conventional concept-that is, that form does of most of the Macchiaioli, Martelli was especially close to Fattori not exist-was given scientific sanction by developments in the and Abbati, and his estate at Castiglioncello, located between Leg­ fields of physics (for example, atomic theory) and of physiological horn and the Tuscan Maremma, was a rural haven for his painter optics and perception. In th~ latter area, the German physiologist friends, to whom he frequently extended his hospitality. During the and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, denying any correspondence late 1850's, Martelli was an eye-witness to the activities of the Flor­ between sensations and the things which they are supposed to de­ entine "progressives." However, some of his more significant and note, developed in detail the theory which holds that our percep­ influential statements about the macchia aesthetic belong not to the tions are merely signs or abstract symbols for external objects, sym­ late fifties but to the late 1870's, a time when Martelli, exposed to bols which we order in relation to our experience so that we may influences from abroad, was himself undergoing a profound intel­ be able to adjust our actions to the environment. 22 In this context, lectual transformation, an awakening which was to affect not only matter or substance-that is, the "form" of "objects" in external his own thinking but that of his friends as well. reality-becomes a convenient but fictitious way of describing the During the 1860's and early seventies, Diego Martelli's writings relationships between sensations which, by definition, are sensa­ on art reflect the conception of contemporary French art which was tions of light and can be differentiated perceptually only in terms of then current among the Italians. During these years, Realism was intensity and color.23 the last word for them in progressive art, and not only Courbet but The terminology employed by Diego Martelli in his lecture of the Barbizon painters as well were all conveniently grouped be­ 1877 would seem to imply some familiarity on his part with a cur­ neath this banner. In this respect, even the alert and receptive Mar­ rent, Berkeleian-oriented philosophy of perception. His acquaint­ telli was unable to overcome the limitations of taste which had been ance with such principles prior to 1878 must be assumed on the imposed upon him by his largely provincial experience.28 In Paris basis of the ideas with which he deals; however, his interest, some­ for the first time in 1863, he waxed enthusiastic over the paintings time after 1878, in the body of popular scientific literature which of Corot, Millet and Courbet, while the work of Manet, which he supports this philosophical position, in particular the writings of saw for the first time at the Salon des Refuses of that year, struck

SS158]). his books (over three thousand volumes) to the· Biblioteca Marucel­ 21 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Theory of Colours, trans. Charles East­ liana in Florence. Among these books, which are still preserved in lake, London, 1840, xxxviii-xxxix. the Marucelliana, is a volume by E. W. von Briicke, Principes scien­ 22 Hermann von Helmholtz, Treatise on Physiological Optics, 3 vols., tifiques des beaux-arts, Paris, 1878, which contains a lengthy essay ed. James Southhall, Rochester, N.Y.: Optical Society of America, by Helmholtz entitled "L'Optique et la Peinture" (Bib. Marucelliana/ 1924-25, Vol. III, 8-9, 18, 19, 20. (First edition: Handbuch der Physio­ LEGATO MARTELLI, B.1 367). logischen Optik, Leipzig, 1867; French trans.: by Emile Ja val and 25 Telemaco Signorini, Caricaturisti e caricaturati al Caffe Michelan­ N. Th. Klein, Optique physiologique, Paris, 1867.) giolo, Florence, 1952, 88, 126-27. Helmholtz's findings were also available in the form of short, pop­ 26 See the standard biography of Martelli: Baccio M Bacci, Diego ular lectures, e.g., "The Recent Progress of the Theory of Vision," Martelli, l'amico dei "Macchiaioli," Florence, 1952, 27. first published in the Preussische lahrbucher in 1868, then anthol­ 27 A selection of Martelli's most important critical writings and lectures ogized and published in many translated editions (e.g., Popular on art, some previously unpublished, has been edited by Antonio Bo­ Lectures on Scientific Subjects, ser. I, 1873). schetto (Scritti d'arte di Diego Martelli, Florence, 1952). On Helmholtz, see, also, the standard biography by Leo Koenigs­ 28 For a general study of Italian taste in regard to contemporary art berger, Hermann von Helmholtz, trans. Frances A. Welby, Oxford, abroad during these years, see Longhi in Rewald, Impressionismo, 1906 (reprinted: New York, Dover, 1965). vii-xxix; also, Vitali, "Prefazione," Lettere dei Macchiaioli, 13-21; 23 Helmholtz, Treatise on Physiological Optics, III, 3. Boschetto, "Premessa," Scritti d'arte di Diego Martelli, 11-15. 24 Upon his death in 189?, Martelli left all of his personal papers and him as "ugly" and "ostentatious."29 Nor, would it appear, was Mar­ Realism is not altogether clear to him: Delacroix, Dupre, Rousseau, telli's second trip to Paris, in 1868, any more successful than the Millet and Fromentin, he maintains, "si tengono tutti per la mano first in opening his eyes to the more recent trends in contemporary come cercatori del vero."34 In his own approach to criticism, how­ European art.30 It was not until his third trip abroad, in 1878, that ever, Martelli is still very much of a Romantic. In his mind, the Martelli, now under the influence of a close association with such sincerity of an artist's love of nature is still a factor which affects artists as Manet, Degas and Pissarro, at last became aware of the the quality of an artist's work. Accordingly, before one of Troy­ newer attitudes. The process of his gradual awakening to these at­ on's canvases, he is careful to point out to us that this artist "amava titudes can be traced through the essays on contemporary art which moltissimo gli animali, e viv~va come in mezzo ad una cascina."35 he wrote before, during and after this stay in Paris. Millet, on the other hand, is praised for having used his art for Early in the spring of 1878, Martelli, as the official correspondent purposes of social protest, as the expression of "l'immensa carita for several Italian publications, journeyed to Paris for the opening che lo animava per tutti gl'infelici." Through his paintings, Martelli of the Exposition Universelle. In the articles which he began sending maintains, in which the workers of the fields are "reproduced" as home to such papers as the Gazzetta d'Italia and Il Risorgimento they really are, with tattered clothing, calloused hands and resigned soon after his arriv~l in the French capital, Martelli did not restrict faces, Millet is telling us "che questa gente soffre e lavora troppo e his comments to the Exposition, but attempted to cover some of che un giorno ne sentiremo le conseguenze."36 the unofficial artistic events that were taking place from day to day Less than one year later, however, toward the end of his stay in the city as well. Early in May, for example, he sent home an in Paris, we detect a radical change in Martelli's .interests. No article on the sale of the Faure collection, a collection which had in­ longer does he seek out exhibitions of the Barbizon painters but is cluded thirteen paintings by Corot, three by Dupre, six by Diaz, interested instead in the fourth group exhibition of the Impression­ three by Manet, one by Vollon and six by Boldini.31 Martelli's taste, ists, a show which opened in Paris early in April of 1879. He now as it is reflected in this article, is still very much oriented towards recognizes Monet as the model of the young, modern artist,37 and the Barbizon painters, for whose work he expresses warm approval. he is able t? make the proper distinctions between the peculiar Manet, whose work had impressed him as "ugly" in 1863, has not modernity of Manet and Degas as opposed to that of the "real" risen very much in his estimation during the intervening fifteen Impressionists.38 No longer, moreover, does he tend to see art as years. For Martelli, it would appear, Manet's paintings are of value the expression of the artist's love of nature or as social protest. His only "as affirmations of modern realism," while, as pure painting, concern now is with more purely formal matters, and he speaks of he finds them pitifully inept. He criticizes the Bon Bock for its lack the eye and of the immediacy of visual sensation as a positive of solidity and relief, complaining that "l'aria non circonda come artistic value in itself. "Coi loro occhi felici," he writes, the Impres­ dovrebbe la figura rubiconda di quel huon bevitore," while the sionists have managed to perceive the shimmer and sparkle of re­ Foyer de l'Opera (with its black-coated figures, which, he says, fracted light, "godendo tutte le sensazioni piacevoli di una scoperta, "sembrano fatti con la cera da scarpe") is a work which, in Mar­ soffrendo tutte le torture e le fatiche della applicazione."39 1 telli's judgment, is entirely lacking both in tonal subtlety and tech­ The sources of this transformation in taste can be traced to the nical skill. 32 many new contacts and experiences to which the alert and receptive In the other articles which Martelli sent home during these early Martelli was exposed during his year in the French capital. He was months of his stay abroad, the painters upon whose work he introduced to the artists who gathered at the Nouvelle Athenes by consistently chose to focus continue to bear witness to what, at such old personal friends as Desboutin and Zandomeneghi, and, this point, we must consider to be his relative lack of critical as the intellectual equal of the most cultivated members of the sophistication. He is attracted by what he calls the "grande scuola group, he was soon drawn into this circle, where he became espe­ moderna francese," which, four years after the first Impressionist cially well acquainted with Manet40 and Degas.41 In addition, access exhibition, still consists for him of such names as Delacroix, Millet, to the intellectual and cultural life of Paris was provided for Mar­ Rousseau, Dupre, Decamps, Diaz, Couture, Fromentin, Meissonier, telli by Giuseppe De Nittis, a Neapolitan artist who had emigrated Troyon, Marilhat, Corot and Courbet.33 Realism is still his ultimate to Paris via Florence in 1867. At the weekly dinner parties given by standard, and while he recognizes stylistic differences among the · De Nittis, who had somehow managed to combine commercial artists whom he prefers, the distinction between Romanticism and success in the Parisian art world with social acceptance by the pro-

29 Martelli, "Gli Impressionisti" (lecture of 1879, published in Pisa, 35 Ibid., 61. 1880), Scritti, 102. 36 Ibid., 61. 30 Although Bacci (Martelli, 40, 42) implies that Martelli was already 37 Martelli, "Gli Impressionisti" (Mostra del 1879), Scritti, 112. acquainted in 1868 with the artists who gathered at the Cafe Guer­ 38 Martelli, "Gli Impressionisti" (Conferenza del 1879) Scritti, 106. bois, there is, to my knowledge, no documentary evidence to support 39 Ibid., 108. such a claim. 40 Ibid., 103. 31 Martelli, "Note di Soggiorno a Parigi, 1," Gazetta d'Italia, May 5, 41 During the course of the year, Degas painted two portraits of Mar­ 1878, Scritti, 53-56. telli (seeP. A. Lemoisne, Degas et son oeuvre, Paris, 1946-49, II, Nos. 32 Martelli, "Note di Soggiorno, 1," Scritti, 55. 519 and 520). For Martelli's comment on his developing friendship 33 Martelli, "Note di Soggiorno a Parigi, II," Gazzetta d'Italia, June 10, with Degas, see Bacci, Martelli, 67; and, for an exceptionally percep­ 1878, Scritti, 58--59. tive, contemp..orary evaluation of Degas' art, see Martelli, "Gli Im­ 34 Martelli, "Note di Soggiorno, II," Scritti, 60. pressionisti" (Mostra del 1879), Scritti, 113. MACCHI.AIOLI 409

Pig. 1. Camille Pissarro, Landscape, Vicinity of Pontoise, 1877. Florence, Fig. 2. Camille Pissarro, In the Kitchen-Garden, 1878. Florence, Galleria J, Galleria d'arte moderna (photo: Soprintendenza aile Gallerie) d'arte moderna (photo: Soprintendenza aile Gallerie) ( gressive avant-garde, Martelli was able to meet and converse not lo strano modo per il quale questi artisti cercano di raggiungere only with the artists but also with several of the writers who were l' effetto [italics mine], rna che sollevera molte discussioni fra voial­ associated with the Impressionist group, men like Zola, Duranty tri."45 His efforts, however, were all in vain: Pissarro's canvases and Edmond de Goncourt.42 Among his new acquaintances, it was went unsold and the reception accorded them by the Florentine with Camille Pissarro that Martelli seems to have struck up the "progressives" was very cool indeed. Fattori, now a professor of closest personal friendship, and it was through Pissarro, in all prob­ some ten years standing at the Florentine Academy, was shocked ability, that the Italian critic acquired his taste for and understand­ by the absence of conventional drawing and tonal modeling in ing of the Impressionists and their art. 43 these paintings and declared openly that he thought them to be Martelli's subsequent efforts to share his own newly acquired confused and discolored and that consequently he did not like them. enthusiasm for Impressionism with the Florentines met, signifi­ Martelli, disturbed by this reaction, wrote back to ·Fattori from cantly, with little success. In September of 1878, for example, Mar­ Paris, urging him to be more tolerant and attempting to convince telli. persuaded Pissarro to send two of his canvases to Florence for the Italian artist of the basic similarity between the goals of the exhibition at the annual Promotrice44 text figs. 1, 2). Through his Macchiaioli and those of the Impressionists. In this important and letters to his friends at home, Martelli endeavored to· prepare in revealing letter, Martelli asked Fattori: advance a favorable reception for Pissarro's canvases. He advised What was the picture which you sent to the Prornotrice last year if not the Italian artists to study the two paintings very carefully and an impression? What was the Carica, sold in Turin, if not an impression? requested that they look after and encourage the sale of the ... the Impressionists, who seek their results with tone placed beside Frenchman's work. Anxious to introduce the Impressionist pictures tone and not with contour, are not exactly using the rnacchia as it was used in Florence in the time of Serafino De Tivoli. In their paintings, in terms that would be most readily grasped by the Florentines, they always seek a tonal range that is light and serene; we, on the other Martelli wrote: "Spero che non sara inutile per voialtri vedere hand, sought the rnacchia as chiaroscuro, which also led to the produc-

42 One of these typical gatherings is described by Martelli in an article nally in the private collection of Diego Martelli, they were part of entitled "Giuseppe De Nittis," Fieramosca, September 13, 1884 Martelli's legacy to the gallery. See: Catalogo delle Opere Arnrnesse •I (Scritti, 127-28). alla Esposizione Solenne della Societa d'Incoraggiarnento delle Belle 43. In a letter of July, 1878, Martelli wrote: "Qui se ressemble s'assernble Arti in Firenze nell'anno 1879, Florence, 1879, No. 113 ("Pissarro, dice il proverbio, ed io mi sono molto legato con un simpatico im~ Cammillo-La tosatura della siepe, studio dal vero in Francia") and pressionista che e uno dei piu forti della brigata e si chiama Pissarro. No. 250 ("Pissarro, Cammillo-L'approssirnarsi della bufera, studio Con l~i fui giorni soho da un patissier [Eugene Murer] che ha una dal vero fatto in Francia"); also, L. R. Pissarro and L. Venturi, Ca­ ®llez1one di quadri che per Ia maggior parte vorrei avere" (Bacci, mille Pissarro, son art, son oeuvre, 2 vols., Paris, 1939, No. 405 61). (Paysage, Environs de Pontoise, dated 1877) and No. 451 (Dans le paintings can be identified with the two canvases by Pissarro Jardin Potager, dated 1878). hang today in the Galleria fiorentina d'arte moderna. Origi- 45 Letter to Cecco Gioli, September, 1878. Bacci, Martelli, 62-Q3. The Art Bulletin

tion of some very good things. Yet the masterpieces produced during whose trips outside of Italy had done little to broaden their tastes, that period, like your Boscajole, exhibit that somewhat dark overall as well as for such "pure" Macchiaioli as Lega and Fattori who tonality which was then prevalent, but is no longer so, even in the work f of Serafino, who is still very much one of us .... I admit that a myopic r~rely left their Tuscan homes, the ideas and attitudes which Mar­ person, if he pushes his nose upon the canvas of an Impressionist pic­ telli brought back with him from Paris in 1879 could have been ture, will understand nothing of it; and he will remain, as I once did, nothing less than a revelation. Shortly after his return to Tuscany amazed that from a crust of this sort it is possible for an effect to emerge. But if this mystery of technique amazed me, it~ did not make in 1879, moreover, Martelli was given the opportunity he needed me laugh; instead, it made me think, so much so that I will now con­ to explain and defend at length the art of the new French school. clude with a recommendation, which is this: look again many times The opportunity in question was another lecture which he was in­ at the Pissarro pictures, without the preconception that someone is play­ ing a practical joke on you; and you will see that, little by little, your vited to deliver in Leghorn before the Circolo filologico, a lecture initial, unfavorable impression will change and that, amidst all the false which was published the following year at Pisa in pamphlet form. painting which for the most part infests the exhibition, these pictures The comments which Martelli made here on Impressionist paint­ will be like windows, for they let in the light.46 ing are enormously valuable, for not only do they present a clear Martelli attempts to explain Impressionism to Fattori in terms of picture of the ideas to which he was exposing the Macchiaioli and the macchia, the effect or overall tonality of the painting. For the their friends at this time, but they also shed light upon the ideas Florentines, in the time of Serafino De Tivoli, in the late 1850's then current in the Impressionist circles in Paris from which he had and early sixties, the effect that was sought, Martelli implies, was just returned. It is necessary, therefore, to quote at length the pas­ one of strong chiaroscuro contrasts, and the paintings that were sages from this lecture in which Martelli presented his listeners produced-"di quell'intonazione un po'nera"-now appear, to Mar­ with a philosophical and physiological rationale for the technique telli's taste, a trifle too dark and old-fashioned. The Impressionists, of Impressionism. Martelli told his audience: he explains, seek a value scale, a macchia, that is much lighter and Impressionism is not only a revolution in the field of thought, it is also a narrower in range than the one sought by the original Macchiaioli, revolution in the physiological understanding of the human eye. It is a and to achieve this brighter and more serene effect, they have new theory which depends upon a different mode of perceiving the sen­ abandoned the firm contours of conventional drawing, relying in­ sation of light and of expressing impressions. The Impressionists did not construct their theories first and then adapt their paintings to them stead upon the juxtaposition of unconfined strokes of color and tone. after the fact, but, on the contrary, as is always the case with real dis­ Martelli clearly grasps the enormous differences in aim and tech­ coveries, the paintings were born out of the unconscious processes of the nique between the aesthetic evolved by the Macchiaioli in the mid­ artist's eye, which, when considered later on, gave rise to the reasoning of the philosophers. . . . . fifties and the one employed by the Impressionists in the mid­ Until now, drawing has generally been believed to be the firmest, most seventies. Nevertheless, he appears to believe in the existence of certain and positive part of art. To color was conceded the unpredictable some basic affinity between the two groups and seems, if not con­ magic of the realm of the imagination. Today, we can no longer reason in this manner, for analysis has shown us that the real impression made fident, at least hopeful that the Macchiaioli will evolve toward an upon the eye by objects is an impression of color; and that we do not see aesthetic similar to that of the Impressionists. However, the Mac­ the contours of forms but only the colors of these forms. chiaioli themselves do not seem to have shared Martelli's view and Even if we accept this train of thought, however, drawing need not ., be renounced, for the revolutions of science, which take place not for did nothing to encourage his fond dream. The aversion which Pis­ secondary ends but with a view to the highest aims, do not destroy sarro's "formless" canvases had inspired in them was not dimin­ that which is good. Drawing, therefore, is simply conceived by the Im­ ished (as Martelli had hoped it would be) by prolonged exposure pressionists in another way and takes on a different meaning and func­ tion. and contemplation, and, thereafter, they consistently rejected Mar­ Drawing no longer belongs to the sense of sight alone but is trans­ telli's efforts to establish points of contact for them with the French ferred in part to the sense of touch and exists as the graphic and math­ group.47 ematical expression of our quantitative judgments. The sense of the solidity of an object is not produced by the eye; the sense of distance Although Martelli was unsuccessful in his efforts to inculcate would not exist for us if we were unable to measure it with our steps, a taste for French Impressionism in the Macchiaioli, he did at least and if you could imagine a human body endowed with all the faculties manage, in the course of his proselytizing activities, to expose the save touch, you would readily understand that such an individual could live only in a world of harmonies and colors and would be deprived Florentines to some of the more recent trends and developments in entirely of the world of measurements and lines. Drawing, then, as contemporary European art and thought. Florence, especially after drawing, is the mathematical expression of quantity and is positive only the removal of the Italian capital to Rome in 1870, was, in terms of in so far as it limits and defines in the algebraic sense of the word. In the same way that algebra is the abstraction of numbers, using letters contemporary cultural activity, an essentially provincial and ·iso­ to represent quantities so that movement and reciprocal relationships can lated place. Consequently, for artists like Signorini and Cecioni, be studied, so drawing is the abstraction of forms, the limits and boun-

46 Undated letter, written by Martelli from Paris, probably early in recognize a compound aggregate of sensations as being the sign of 1879, to Giovanni Fattori, published by Ugo Ojetti, "Macchiaioli e a simple object. Accustomed to consider the sensation-complex as a Impressionisti," Dedalo, r, 1920-21, 759-60. connected whole, generally we are not able to perceive the separate 47 An example is Martelli's dream of establishing an international gal­ parts of it without external help and support ... we are exceedingly lery in which works by the Macchiaioli and the Impressionists would well trained in finding out by our sensations the objective nature of hang side by side, a project for which the Florentines did not share the objects around us, but we are completely unskilled in observing his enthusiasm and which was consequently never carried out (see the sensations per se ... the practice of associating them [i.e., the Bacci, Martelli, 64-65). sensations] with things outside of us actually prevents us from 48 Martelli, "Gli lmpressionisti" (Conferenza del 1879), Scritti, 106-08. being distinctly conscious of the pure sensations" (Hermann von 49 On the latter issue, compare Martelli's discussion with the state­ Helmholtz, Treatise on Physiological Optics, Ill, 8-9). ments made by Helmholtz: " ... experience shows us how to 50 See above, pages 406-07. MACCHIAIOLI 411

daries of which are isolated from the light that envelops them and from of perception might hold for the artist and his work seems also to the color that clothes them. Drawing in chiaroscuro is the intermediary pre-date his 1878 trip to Paris. In the lecture given in 1877, Mar­ link between drawing and painting, for he who draws in chiaroscuro must not only indicate the masses of shadow with black and the masses telli, as we have seen, was already attempting to re-interpret the of light with white, but must grasp and use the full range of half-tones activities of his Tuscan friends in terms which would suggest his that separate white from black. Thus he adopts a full palette, with an familiarity with the optics of his period. In the 1879 lecture, more­ infinite range of combinations at his disposal, and, consequently, he paints. Since man has the ability to abstract mentally one object from over, his description of chiaroscuro drawing as true tonal painting, another, but has not in reality the ability to abstract and fix one sensa­ subject to the same perceptual principles which sanctioned the tion for the reason that all sensations are linked and are essentially Impressionists' handling of color, must again be understood in complex, it follows then that, having linked in our brain the boundaries of objects with their colored appearance, we imagine that we see the light of this attempted re-interpretation, but as part, now, of Mar­ contours of things, but in reality we do not see them.48 telli's campaign to convince the Florentines of the essential similar­ ity between their own researches and those of their younger French In defense of the Impressionists' mode of achieving their effects contemporaries. Significantly, however, the artists who had origi­ with juxtaposed flecks of color instead of drawn contours, Martelli nally belonged to the Macchiaioli group-Fattori, for example-re­ draws an analogy between this mode of painting and the nature mained, as we have seen, singularly unconvinced by the analogy of the optical experience, as this experience had been defined and could not be persuaded, despite Martelli's arguments, that line, in the most advanced work of the period in the field of physiological in the conventional sense, was merely a perceptual illusion. In fact optics. Justifying the Impressionist technique as a response to the the only mem~er of this circle who was disposed to see the macchia physiological and psychological nature of perception itself, Mar­ as Martelli did, in terms of the new perceptual theories, was not telli relies heavily upon the work of Hermann von Helmholtz, who one of the painters themselves, but one of their friends and asso­ (to name only a few of the basic issues which arise in Martelli's ciates, the sculptor and "theoretician of the macchia," Adriano discussion) had described the pure visual experience as an experi­ Cecioni. ence of light and color, had investigated the problem of visual ver­ In a series of essays, the first written around 1880 and the last sus tactile perceptions of space, and had discussed the Perception of produced shortly before his death in 1886, Adriano Cecioni set simple objects in terms of the complex linkage of individual sensa­ down his recollections of the early days of the macchia movement. tions into abstract concepts or symbol structures.49 In these essays, he combined a loosely biographical treatment of As we have already observed, Martelli's interest in perception the artists who had made up the Macchiaioli group with a general theory would appear to pre-date his third trip to Paris,5° a factor to theoretical presentation of the macchia aesthetic, relying heavily for which we may partially be able to attribute the Italian critic's ability the latter, as we shall see, upon the ideas recently introduced by to understand and his readiness to accept the totally unconventional Martelli and interweaving these ideas with statements that more mode of vision which the Impressionists were exploiting in their nearly reflect the true nature of the original aesthetic. For example, art.. Martelli's perceptive recognition of Impressionism as the most in an article dated February 27, 1881, Cecioni wrote: vital artistic expression of the day, in other words, cannot be ex­ plained simply in terms of exposure alone, for Martelli, we must The macchiaioli, for those who are not acquainted with the meaning of this word, were the first among us to dedicate themselves to the new remember, was not the only figure associated with the Italian group studies and began to seek and to investigate the actual nature of effects who had had some contact with contemporary developments in the by means of sketches, roughed out in the basic local colors or tones that Parisian art world. Signorini, for example, who made frequent were part of a given effect. Studying such effects as sunlight, reflection 51 52 and rain, they worked out a manner of obtaining a correct and exact trips abroad, was also a friend of Degas and was accepted by division between light and shadow, without using transitions of any sort. the same social circle in which Martelli had moved during his stay In the midst of a great uproar of opinion, they made very serious studies in the French capital. Yet there is no evidence to indicate that Si­ of relationship, value, hue, character and feeling, and all of this was done with patches [macchie] of color, of light and of shadow. And from gnorini had at any time shared Martelli's enthusiasm for Impression­ this originated the word macchiaio!i.53 ism. Clearly, there must have been some other factor in Martelli's intellectual make-up and prior orientation that made him particu-: In his essay on Signorini, Cecioni expanded and systematized this larly susceptible to the art and to the attitudes of the Impressionists, specious definition of the macchia as the "patch" unit of artistic and this, I would suggest, may well have been his interest in the vision and execution. In what has become one of the most fre­ field of optics and perception. quently quoted and most influential passages in all of Macchiaioli Martelli's awareness of the implications which recent theories literature, he wrote:

.. 51 Signorini visited Paris in 1861, 1873, 1878, 1881, 1883 and 1884. See ballerina, signed by Degas and inscribed to Signorini, which was in the artist's "Cronologia autobiografica" in Soman~, Signorini, 267- Signorini's studio at his death, see Ugo Ojetti, Telemaco Signorini, 71. Milan, Galleria Pesaro, 1930, pl. cxxxvu, No. 110. For Degas' opinion 52 Signorini's acquaintance with Degas dates back to Degas' student of one of Signorini's paintings, the Sala delle agitate of 1865, see the days of the mid-fifties when he visited Florence and apparently letter from Desboutin to Signorini, dated April 16, 1875, in Somare, I mixed with the local <).rtists who frequented the Caffe Michelangiolo Signorini, 36. On Degas' friendship with the Italians, see Lamberto (see Signorini's history of the Caffe, Caricaturisti, 119, 167). In the Vitali, "Three Italian Friends of Degas," Burlington Magazine, 105, .I years that followed, the two artists maintained personal and pro­ 1963, 266-72. fessional contact with one another and may even have exchanged 53 Cecioni, "Artisti e critici," Opere, 134. works upon occasion. For a reproduction of the pastel drawing of a 412 The Art Bulletin

All of the macchiaioli, or impressionists if we prefer to call them that, finite moments. But in order that this surprise take place, it is necessary were agreed that their art consisted, not in the search for form, but in to develop a method of reproducing nature's effects very quickly, that the manner of rendering the impressions which they received from na­ is, within the space of time that the duration of an impression allows ture, by means of patches of color, of light and of shadow, as for ex­ us.55 ample: a single patch of color for the face, another for the jacket or dress, another for the skirt, another for the hands and feet, and so on It is easy to see why the new theories of perception which Martelli for the ground and for the sky. expounded would have made so great an impression upon Cecioni The figures would almost never exceed the size of fifteen centimeters, and why he was so willing and eager to re-interpret the procedures that size which reality assumes when seen from a certain• distance, that distance at which the parts of the scene which has impressed us are of his painter-friends in light of the new ideas. By the seventies, perceived in terms of mass and not detail; thus, a figure seen against Cecioni, as we have indicated, was a confirmed Realist, who be­ a white wall or against the sky at sunset, or against any area illumi­ lieved that the artist's function was to capture and record that nated by the sun, was considered as a dark patch against another light one. And only the "principal parts which go to. make up this dark patch which he perceived in reality. Technique, accordingly, was one of are taken into consideration. For example, the head without, however, Cecioni's long-standing preoccupations, for if the artist is to "sur­ the details of the eyes, nose and mouth; the hands without the fingers, prise nature" successfully, his skill has to be such that he can cap­ the clothing without the folds; first of all, because in these proportions, such details disappear, and also because this type of concern was not ture nature's fleeting effects "within the space of time that the within the realm of the macchia, the purpose of which, rather, was to duration of an impression allows us." Hence the appeal for Cecioni establish principles that could serve as a solid basis for the development of the rationale behind the Impressionist technique, a technique of a completely new art, and these principles are color, value, and re­ lationship . ... described by Martelli as a pictorial parallel to the very nature of the It would be impossible to give you an idea of all the experiments they optical experience itself, enabling the artist to be true to what he made, especially for the effect of sunlight ... they exhausted all the re­ actually does see. The macchia, says Cecioni, is "a science," and sources of the palette and could not obtain the effect of sunlight.... In this type of research, you can well understand how the study of form the art of the Macchiaioli ("or impressionists if we prefer to call and contour would have to have been excluded or treated as a secondary them that") consists of the rendering of "impressions," not by consideration. Contour, properly speaking, had no place, nor could it means of line, but by means of color and tone. In all of these state­ have had one, for if these artists had had to draw even one part of their picture-for example, a tree-trunk-in that space of time, the effect ments, we hear echoes of Diego Martelli and the ideas which he [I' effetto] would have changed and the whole purpose of their research presented at Leghorn in 1879.56 been defeated. 54 Of major concern to Cecioni in his re-interpretation and ampli­ fication of the macchia as a formal principle was the description of In his essay on Cabianca, Cecioni continued these general observa­ a sketch technique, and it is the emphasis which he placed upon tions. on macchia aesthetic and technique and wrote: the sketch as a tool facilitating the "scientific" imitation of ob:. The word macchia has given rise to a misunderstanding among the served reality and upon the macchia (redefined for this purpose as Macchiaioli themselves. Many of them believe that macchia means the "patch" unit of perception and execution) as the scientific sketch, and that the study of gradations and of the part within the means of sketching par excellence which has done so much to ob­ part, serving to give finish to the sketch, banishes the macchia from the picture. Here is the misconception; the macchia is the basis, and, as scure from modern scholarship the real position of the Macchiaioli such, remains in the picture. Studies of form and investigations of de­ and their original intent. During the late 1850's and early sixties, tail serve the purpose of realizing more completely the various parts that when the Macchiaioli sketched en plein air for the purpose of study­ make up the whole, without, however, fracturing or destroying that whole. The appearance of reality arises out of patches of color and of ing the characteristic effects of light, the immediate goal of their chiaroscuro, each of which has an exact value, which is measured by activity was not the exact reproduction of what they visually per­ means of relationship. In each patch, this relationship has a double value, ceived; such an approach to nature would have seemed, indeed, both as light or dark and as color. When one says: the tone is correct as color but not as value, one means that it is too light or too dark in relation physically impossible and aesthetically undesirable to artists who to the other tones ... were still essentially Romantic in their orientation. With their The fact remains that the macchia is not a sketch, but a science, and quickly brushed sketches, the Macchiaioli, instead, sought only that as such it has revolutionized every system of painting adopted be­ fore its appearance and afterward. Most impor:tant of all, it has taught to secure for themselves brief and not necessarily complete notations us that nature must be surprised. In fact, all the works of the realists of the macchia or "effect", the overall distribution of light and represent, more or less, nature surprised by the artist in one of its in- shadow in scenes which had moved their emotions or stirred their

54 Cecioni, "Telemaco Signorini," Opere, 157-58. e piu che una macchia piu o meno bianca su di un fondo piu o 55 Cecioni, "Vincenzo Cabianca," La Domenica del Fracassa, July 12, meno grigio, ed il vestito della figura diventa, per esempio, una 1885, Opere, 185-86. macchia piu o meno bleu messa accosto alia macchia piu o meno 56 Even in the verbal formulation with which he describes the juxta­ bianca. Da cio una grande semplicita, quasi nessun dettaglio, un posed patch technique that he ascribes to the Macchiaioli, Cecioni insieme di macchie giuste e delicate, le quali, a qualche passe di seems to have been influenced once again by Martelli. His formula­ distanza, danno al quadro un rilievo che colpisce. tion seems to follow a passage from Emile Zola's essay on Manet lnsisto su questo carattere delle opere di Manet, perche e quello fairly closely, a passage which Martelli had translated and quoted in che le fa essere quello che sono. Tutta I'originalita dell'artista his lecture on Impressionism. Martelli's translation had been scrupu­ consista nel modo com'e costruito il suo occhio, esso vede biondo e lously precise: vede per "masse" (Scritti, 104-05). Cio che mi colpisce dopo e una conseguenza necessaria della Zola's French text, first published in the Revue du XXe Siecle in Iegge dei valori. L'artista posto davanti ad un soggetto pur che 1867 and subsequently reprinted as a pamphlet by Dentu, must also sia, si lascia guidare da' suoi occhi che veggono questo soggetto have been available in Italy, for Martelli urges his audience to come una combinazione di Iarghe tinte sottoposto ad una Iegge che read for themselves this essay "scritto dell'illustre romanziere le impone le une aile altre. Una testa di contro ad un muro, non stampato dal Dentu in Parigi; costi troverete completo lo studio di MACCHIAIOLI 413

Fig. 3. Giovanni Fattori, Lady in the Sun (detail). 1866. Milan, Vitali Collection (photo: author) ,- imaginations, so that, back in the studio, they might have the ma­ Macchiaioli set themselves and to which they applied it, however, terial upon which to build freely, in a personal and creative manner, this mode of sketching in itself was not one which the Macchiaioli poetic reconstructions of their experiences in nature. For the Realist had invented nor one which they or their contemporaries would Cecioni, on the other hand, the plein air sketch, as a tool, was re­ have deemed revolutionary or unique.57 It was not, certainly, as quired to function more precisely, enabling the artist, moving more Cecioni would have it, the result of a deliberate system or of a con­ swiftly than nature herself, to attain a high degree of completeness scious decision, based on the principle that "the appearance of real­ and accuracy in the recording of what he had seen. Hence, Cecioni's ity arises out of patches of color and of chiaroscuro," to omit line concern with a "scientific" mode of sketching which would cor­ and to paint only in terms of pigment patches. To verify this, we respond in method to the way in which the eye itself operates, and need only examine so well-known an example of the macchia· sketch hence the new emphasis which he placed upon sketching in his re­ as Giovanni Fattori's Signora all'aperto, where the lines are still interpretation of the macchia as the "patch" unit of sketch execu­ clearly visible, carefully inked in by the artist to define each small tion. area or unit of color before he began to paint (text fig. 3).58 While Studying the effects of nature from the late fifties on, the Mac­ such plein air studies by the Macchiaioli can and have been likened chiaioli employed a style of sketching which is unquestionably a to Impressionist painting in terms of the directness and rapidity of distinctive one; Cecioni's "patch", in fact, appears at first glance their execution and their apparent acceptance of the stroke as a deceptively apt as a term by which to describe the peculiar formal component of the image, the resemblance is at best superficial.59 quality of these small oil studies in which the visual world seems to For unlike the Impressionist painting, the macchia study is still be reduced to flat, patterned areas or "patches" of color and tone. related, both stylistically and conceptually, to the older, academic Though well-suited to the particular plein air problem which the tradition of the preparatory sketch; like the older studio sketch, it

un grande artista e dimostrate le ragioni dell'arte moderna." chiaioli, this work, in its present incompleted state, reveals Fattori's 57 The relationship of this style to the standard mode of studio sketch­ method of working out his entire composition in line, using the dark ing which wa~ taught and used with relative uniformity in the acad­ brown tone of the wooden panel as an aid in establishing the effect, emies of Italy during the period when the Macchiaioli received their and adding color, somewhat as an afterthought, to fill in the prepared training is discussed in my unpublished dissertation ("The Macchia­ contours of the forms. ioli: Academicism and Modernism in Nineteenth Century Italian 59 The distinction commonly made, moreover, between the macchia, the Painting," Columbia University, 1967, 141-60) and will be dealt with "patch" unit that defines form, and the Impressionist flecked stroke at greater length in a forthcoming article. which dissolves form (see, e.g., Palma Bucarelli, I Macchiaoli, Rome, 56 The extent to which Fattori was in fact prone to rely upon line and 1956, 22, and Rosabianca Skira Venturi, Italian Painting from Cara­ drawing in the execution of his pictures ts demonstrated even more vaggio to Modigliani, New York, 1952, 116) breaks down here and clearly in an unfinished study of a military subject from a somewhat must finally be discarded as irrelevant, since the macchia, it is now later period (see Giovanni Malesci, Catalogazione illustrata della clear, did not originally mean "patch" and, Cecioni notwithstanding, pittura ad olio di Giovanni Fattori, Novara, 1961, No. 346). Begun on did not refer to a technique or mode of sketch execution. a small wooden panel, as were so many of the studies of the Mac- The Art Bulletin

is conceived as a reduction of a compositional configuration, a com­ and appealing in their tiny sketches, in their larger and more am­ positional configuration, however, which is now no longer just a bitious studio compositions?61 Why, given the early and promising traditional or invented formula, but something which the artist has plein air experiments of its artists, was nineteenth-century Italy observed and experienced directly in nature. The Impressionist unable to produce a movement equivalent or analogous in its im­ painting, on the .other hand, is not a reduction, either in technique plications to the movement of Impressionism in France? Or, why, or in conception, but a full and attentive response to the complexi­ as Fritz Novotny has succinctly put it, did the macchia movement ties of an immediate visual experience. remain"a cul-de-sac in Italian nineteenth-century art, an 'Early Ren­ Despite the important role which both plein air and studio aissance' " upon which no "High Renaissance" was to follow?62 sketching played in their work, the Macchiaioli throughout their Answers to such questions must be found in the inability of the careers distinguished firmly and consistently between the sketch or Macchiaioli ever really to understand or to accept plein air-ism as study and the finished work, invariably choosing the latter for a valid aesthetic premise. For committed though the Macchiaioli may formal presentation to the public.60 Even Cecioni, despite the new have been to the direct study and observation of nature as the emphasis which he places UJ?On plein air sketching, does not regard formal and expressive foundation of their work, unlike the Impres­ the sketch as the ultimate product or goal of the artist's activity. sionists, they were unable to accept the immediacy of sensation Though a crucial and indispensable tool, it is, in his view, a tool and response as the primary value of the work of art itself. In 1866, nonetheless, and he makes it clear that an initial plein air study when Monet dug a trench in his garden to accommodate a huge can­ must undergo a process of elaboration and refinement in the studio, vas for a plein air painting, his act was a gesture of defiance against "for the purpose of realizing more completely the various parts that a tradition that continued to inhibit the Macchiaioli throughout make up the whole." According to Cecioni, the broad tonal struc­ their careers; it was a proclamation of the intrinsic and sufficient ture discovered and worked out by means of plein air and studio value of the plein air technique. Monet was going outdoors to paint sketches should remain discernible as the basis of the finished pic­ finished pictures and not studies; of this, the size of his canvas ture, but by his own admission, the degree of amplification which could no longer leave any doubt. Such an idea, of course, was be­ the artists themselves believed necessary for the transformation of yond the comprehension of a Macchiaiolo, cognizant though he an initial study into a finished work of art might in some cases to­ might have been of the value of studying nature directly. Fattori, tally "banish the macchia from the picture." for example, who would refer to one tiny sketch for many large In any attempt to establish the position of the Macchiaioli or to studio pieces over the years63 or use a number of plein air studies assess their achievement in relative terms, we must turn to this of individual elements for a large, studio-painted composition,64 propensity on the part of the Italian group for making a rigid could clearly never like, or even understand the Impressionists. In distinction between the plein air sketch and the finished work. all of their contact with the art of contemporary France, in fact, For here, I would suggest, lie the answers to questions which are the Macchiaioli were impressed only by the generation of 1830 and, invariably asked by those who face and try to explain the apparent later in their careers, by Courbet, and it was within this relatively failure of the nineteenth-century Italian school to realize fully its more traditional frame of reference that they themselves always potential. Why, for example, it is often asked, were the Macchiaioli worked. unable to retain the much admired freshness of vision, so evident Vassar College

60 Silvestro Lega, for example, considered his small works to be unsuit­ distinction between the "studio dal vero," which "va fatto sui luogo," able for public exhibition (see the letter dated November 13, 1865, and the "quadro," which "andrebbe fatto tutto di maniera," is re­ Lettere dei Macchiaioli, 124), while for Fattori, who was in the habit ported by Diego Martelli (Carriere Italiano, December 2, 1895; cited of giving away his plein air studies as occasional gifts to students by Giardelli, I Macchiaioli, 288). and friends, such works, despite their undeniable place in the creative 61 See, e.g., Bucarelli, I Macchiaioli, 22-23. process, were ultimately in themselves "un poco troppo corsiva" 62 Fritz Novotny, Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1780-1880, Balti­ (Mario Giardelli, I Macchiaioli e l'epoca !oro, Milan, 1958, 350). more, 1960, 179. Fattori clearly states his standards for a completed work, in which 63 See, e.g., Malesci, Catalogazione illustrata della pittura ad olio di attention should be paid to the smallest descriptive detail "fino alia Giovanni Fattori, Nos. 616, 639, 649 and 744. piu piccola fibbia," in a letter of February 12, 1873, to the dealer 64 Ibid., Nos. 30 and 636, 359 and 631, 357 and 637. Marco Amodeo (Lettere dei Macchiaioli, 33), and Giuseppe Abbati's