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Giovanni Fattori
Painter and engraver (Leghorn 1825- Florence 1908).
Studied with G. Baldini in Leghorn and after whith G. Bezzuoli in Florence (1846-48).
The main rapresentative of the "Macchiaioli" movement.
The Macchiaioli (from the Italian macchia, meaning a stain or blot) were a group of Italian artists who, between 1855 and 1865, reacted against the prevailing academic schools of painting. The movement was an attempt to return to the Tuscan tradition of painting that had given rise to such quatrocento masters as Fra Angelico and Piero della Francesca. Working mainly in Florence, the Macchiaioli used individual blobs or touches of paint. They held their first independent exhibit in 1862.
Many of the pictures below are shown in the Giovanni Fattori Museum in Leghorn. |
Amedeo Modigliani
During the early 1900s in Paris, the Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, b. Leghorn July 12, 1884, d. Paris Jan. 24, 1920, developed a unique style. Today his graceful portraits and lush nudes at once evoke his name, but during his brief career few apart from his fellow artists were aware of his gifts. Modigliani had to struggle against poverty and chronic ill health, dying of tuberculosis and excesses of drink and drugs at the age of 35.
In 1906, Modigliani settled in Paris, where he encountered the works of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Georges Rouault, and Pablo Picasso (in his "blue period") and assimilated their influence, as in The Jewess (1908; private collection, Paris). The strong influence of Paul Cezanne's paintings is clearly evident, both in Modigliani's deliberate distortion of the figure and the free use of large, flat areas of color.
His friendship with Constantin Brancusi kindled Modigliani's interest in sculpture, in which he would continue his very personal idiom, distinguished by strong linear rhythms, simple elongated forms, and verticality. Head (1912; Guggenheim Museum, New York City) and Caryatid (1914; Museum of Modern Art, New York City) exemplify his sculptural work, which consists mainly of heads and, less often, of full figures.
After 1915, Modigliani devoted himself entirely to painting, producing some of his best work. His interest in African masks and sculpture remains evident, especially in the treatment of the sitters' faces: flat and masklike, with almond eyes, twisted noses, pursed mouths, and elongated necks. Despite their extreme economy of composition and neutral backgrounds, the portraits convey a sharp sense of the sitter's personality, as in Moise Kisling (1915; private collection, Milan). A fine example of Modigliani's figure paintings is a reclining Nude (1917; Guggenheim Museum), an elegant, arresting arrangement of curved lines and planes as well as a striking idealization of feminine sexuality.
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Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni, b. Leghorn Dec. 7, 1863, d. Rome Aug. 2, 1945, was one of the most important composers of Italian opera in the generation after Verdi's.
His one-act Cavalleria Rusticana, based on a play by Giovanni Verga, is a landmark in VERISMO, a school of Italian naturalism.
Mascagni first studied music in Leghorn, his native city. His initial successes in composition won him a patron who subsidized his further education at the Milan Conservatory. Subsequently, he became the conductor of a traveling operatic company.
Cavalleria Rusticana (1889), Mascagni's first opera, was written for a competition sponsored by the publishing house of Sonzogno. It not only won the prize but also quickly became a worldwide success. Mascagni's 17 later operas and operettas are varied in style and show gains in musical craftsmanship, but none match the dramatic power of his earliest work. The best known of his later operas are L'Amico Fritz (1891), Iris (1898), and Il Piccolo Marat (1921).
In 1929 he became the musical director of La Scala, succeeding Arturo Toscanini. Mascagni was an active supporter of fascism, and at its defeat in 1945 his fortunes fell, and he died in poverty and isolation.. |
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