Telemaco Signorini, Macchiaioli Master

The Ghetto of Florence, 1882


Telemaco Signorini was an Italian artist born on August 18, 1835 in Florence. He was a prominent member of the Macchiaioli movement that arose in Italy during the 1850's roughly a decade before Impressionism began in France. From the Italian "macchie", meaning stain or patches, their work was heavily influenced by brushwork and the effects of light from Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Tintoretto and Velázquez. Italy during this time was under massive change and turmoil of the Risorgiomento, and for these artists the established themes of the past felt outdated and decided to turn their focus onto everyday life. The artists met at a local coffee shop called Caffè Michelangiolo, along with writers and patriots. Although their art has faded with time under the shadow of the Impressionists, their art was born of revolution and cultural rebirth, and as we will see here Telemaco was the signature artist of the group with an eye unlike most arists, even by today's standards.


In The Ghetto of Florence above, Telemaco captures life in the late 1800's in this narrow perspective composition. The crowd of people in the streets here gives the painting a sense of presence as if we are standing there ourselves. Telemaco captures the division of class quitel literally in half with the poor on the left and seated on the ground, while the upper class on the right. Interestingly, the poor are dressed with more vigorous colors while the right hand figures are monotone dark tones. I like how the group of figures are talking in a circle, which seems very natural, while the foreground man is walking right towards us at an angle. Telemaco captures all the body language of all the figures with deep accurate naturalism, and yet all of the faces are blurred strokes. This street is really the subject here, and despite the appearance of textures and details he paints the architecture with loose brushwork. The cobblestone is painted in earth tones with cool highlights to suggest the presence of rain earlier in the afternoon. Notice the long crack down the middle of the street, which is an apt symbol of class division that exists even to this very day. I love how the arched beam frames the building in the background in that cool, overcast light with the sky above it. This was everyday life over a decade or so before the first automobiles appeared, which helps to explain the narrowness of the street. If you look carefully at the street, a narrow beam of sunlight rakes across the middle of the composition toward us. This is urban painting at its finest.



The Macchiaoli (Telemaco is wearing a hat and holding the wine bottle with both hands in the front row)




Olive Grove at Antignano (L'Ardenza), ca.1860


I love the glorious shadow work here. A woman sits on a horse with what appears to be her son looking up, farm animals along stone steps behind him. The trees themselves are tactile despite this natural chiaroscuro and the leaves are a canopy of warm sunlight and shadow patterns on the ground below. Signorini only accents only a few of the leaves and some of the bark on the trees behind her, while the horse and dog are what lead our eyes downward to the shadows below. Look at the way the large tree is angled in such a way that it leads our eye beyond the figures outward to the background trees in cool, atmospheric haze. This is quite an unusual composition in that the figures themselves are really not the subject, but the trees and the light. Signorini asks us to breathe and absorb the scene, an invitation to rest along with the woman, boy and animals, that Nature herself is what we all belong to and is what is really important in life, not us.



L'alzaia (The Towpath),1864


One of the most dramatic compositions I've ever seen in a painting. It feels more like a Neorealist Italian film than a genre painting. Five exhausted men or alzaioli, pull a massive barge like wild animals. Note how Signorini uses color in the clothing of the men, which changes hue from cool to warm and brighter as the figures in the front lean toward the indifferent upperclass man with his young daughter in the distance. The bleakness of the landscape further underlines the isolation and harsh conditions...even the blue sky above offers no solace. Look at the long shadows of the workers cast by the hot sun along the ground leading our eye toward the man and child. This biting social realism apparently won a medal when first exhibited at the Vienna International Exhibition in 1873.







Non potendo aspettare. La lettera (Unable to wait. The letter), 1867


More typical nineteenth century genre style European painting, this woman eagerly responds to a letter in what appears to be an artist's studio. The expression on her face reveals how deeply in thought she is. I love the rich textural contrasts and warm harmonies of this painting. Look at the table cloth upon which she writes upon, a blue and red color with golden yellow tones scumbled down the sides. The variety of frames on the walls and landscapes reveal the studio of Signorini and the woman is Caterina Eyre, a children's art teacher for the Gori Pannilini family in Siena. Look at Signorini's brushwork here...smooth blending in areas like her face contrasting with the thick impastos of the papers and canvases on the table, along with the golden scarf around her hair that descends onto her lap. Even the umbrella at her side points downward to the interesting pattern on the floor. When an artist can portray his own world and a person within it with this kind of candour and intimacy, it really inspires us to pick up our own brushes and reveal our own private physical world we inhabit. Signorini portrayed a world of social class struggle and yet never preached. He invites us in with his own eyes. Vivid, colorful, vibrant and yet somehow fully present and tactile. A true painter's painter.