The Gallery of Modern Art at Palazzo Pitti was officially founded on 11 June 1924 in the rooms that used to belong to the last Grand Dukes of Lorraine.
However, the idea of setting up an exhibition space dedicated to modern art in Tuscany dates back to at least twenty years earlier, when Diego Martelli's collection, the founding nucleus of the Gallery, arrived in the city of Florence. It was already in the intentions of the benefactor to create a museum that would bear witness to the most up-to-date aesthetic trends of the time, from the Macchiaioli revolution to the far-sighted interest of Diego himself for French art, with the purchase of two paintings by Pissarro despite the misfortune of Impressionists among critics of the time. The initial choice of displaying the collection in the spaces of Palazzo Vecchio was followed by a request from the Leonardo da Vinci Society to set up a city gallery by reorganising the modern art collections located between the Academy of Fine Arts and the City of Florence. In the beginning, the idea was to use the Palazzina delle Cascine, but following the Convention signed by the Municipality and the State in 1914, a few years later the choice was to house the collections in the second piano nobile of the Pitti Palace, which was preferred to the rooms of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. The final decision to use these rooms came in 1921, after the Royal Decree of 3 October 1919, when the House of Savoy decided to alienate all properties in favour of the State. The minutes of 8 January 1924 formalised the start of the restoration works in the rooms of the Palace, which were conducted thanks to the contribution of the Society of Friends of the Gallery of Modern Art.

There is no evidence of the exact layout of the Gallery in June 1924, but we can assume that it corresponded to the description made by Arturo Iahn-Rusconi in his guide of 1934, where he reported a historical sequence where paintings by Pietro Benvenuti and Giuseppe Bezzuoli were alternated with monographic rooms dedicated to Antonio Ciseri and Stefano Ussi, a “shrine” of Macchiaioli painters built around the collection donated by Diego Martelli. In the final section, the exhibition of contemporary artists was organised according to Tuscan figurative tradition, with works by Libero Andreotti, Felice Carena, Giovanni Colacicchi and Baccio Maria Bacci displayed alongside other protagonists of Italian art during the period between the two wars. With these works, the Gallery took on a militant vocation, aiming to house pieces of local contemporary art, a trend that found further development in the post-war period, when the collection started to include international works thanks to the regular influx of paintings and sculptures exhibited at the Premio del Fiorino between 1950 and 1971, most of which are still preserved in the storage rooms of the museum.

With the reopening of the museum in 1972, the new layout favoured the interaction between the architectural context and the works on display, without neglecting the furnishings that Victor Emmanuel II had started to collect since the Universal Exhibition of Florence in 1861. The itinerary was organised according to the different movements, thus bringing together the collections of the Academy, those of the Royal House of Savoy, and the acquisitions of the Municipality of Florence, which were moved to the Gallery thanks to the aforementioned Convention of 1914 together with Martelli's donation. In addition, the exhibition was expanded thanks to donations by private collectors, such as Leone Ambron's collection (1947), Emilio Gagliardini's loan, Pietro Saltini's donations, and Domenico Trentacoste's donation; up to the very recent donation made by Carlo Del Bravo and individual works by prominent artists such as Plinio Nomellini with Factory accident (1993), Francesco Gioli with San Frediano a Settimo di Cascina (1995), and Adriano Cecioni with First steps (1996).

With the reopening of the museum in 1972, the new layout favoured the interaction between the architectural context and the works on display, without neglecting the furnishings that Victor Emmanuel II had started to collect since the Universal Exhibition of Florence in 1861. The itinerary was organised according to the different movements, thus bringing together the collections of the Academy, those of the Royal House of Savoy, and the acquisitions of the Municipality of Florence, which were moved to the Gallery thanks to the aforementioned Convention of 1914 together with Martelli's donation. In addition, the exhibition was expanded thanks to donations by private collectors, such as Leone Ambron's collection (1947), Emilio Gagliardini's loan, Pietro Saltini's donations, and Domenico Trentacoste's donation; up to the very recent donation made by Carlo Del Bravo and individual works by prominent artists such as Plinio Nomellini with Factory accident (1993), Francesco Gioli with San Frediano a Settimo di Cascina (1995), and Adriano Cecioni with First steps (1996).

The exhibition itinerary of the Gallery of Modern Art follows a mostly chronological criterion, taking into account the main artistic trends in Tuscany (and beyond) and the key historical events over a time span ranging from the end of the 18th century to the period between the two world wars. Some important collections are still intact, interspersed with themed rooms and reproductions of exhibition halls from the 19th century. A number of works will guide the public in the discovery of the various artistic movements, following the development of key topics for understanding the art and culture of the period in question.

Rooms 1-4

The first rooms are dedicated to Neoclassicism, a cultural movement that in the late 18th and early 19th century was inspired by ancient, Greek and Roman art, which was considered to be the expression of measure, greatness and perfection. Mythological themes, old-fashioned clothes and hairstyles became popular among European salons, being represented in paintings and sculptures according to the ancient style, but also applied to clothing and in settings and styles of everyday life. This relation with ancient art generated also the images of the Napoleonic era: as it often happened throughout history, the Roman empire became the cultural matrix of modern authoritarian regimes, influencing their imagery and aesthetics.

In July 1796, the Pitti Palace welcomed the young Bonaparte, who was received with full honours by Ferdinand III of Lorraine. In 1801, after deposing the Grand Dukes and becoming the Emperor, Napoleon chose Ludovico and Maria Luisa of Bourbon to rule over Florence and Tuscany, and since 1809 their sister Elisa Baciocchi.

Elisa Baciocchi had already reigned over Lucca, where she protected artists who were escaping from revolutionary France. In Florence, she supported local arts and crafts and enriched the collections of the Pitti Palace with important pieces.

With the Restoration and the return of the Lorraine family, the cultural context of Florence continued to be characterised by pro-Napoleonic tendencies. Nicola Demidoff, the founder of a wealthy Russian family, had settled in Florence at the turn of the century, carrying out diplomatic duties on behalf of the Tsar. He opened exhibition halls in the luxurious villas of San Donato (today's Novoli area of Florence) and in the Medici villa of Pratolino.

Pietro Benvenuti (Arezzo 1769 – Florence 1844)
The Saxons' Oath to Napoleon after the Battle of Jena 
1812
Oil on canvas; Gen. n.3

Among the memories of the Napoleonic myth, the palace hosts Pietro Benvenuti's monumental Saxons' Oath. The painting, which was originally intended for the Palace of Versailles, can be admired in the second room of the Gallery of Modern Art.
The scenic and emphatic night setting, as well as the large dimensions and the powerful light, are functional to celebrate this epic moment, in the same way as in the Oath of the Horatii, a work by Frenchman Jacques-Louis David preserved at the Louvre Museum. The representation of the cult of personality, as well as the gestures of the defeated, are derived from the military rhetoric of ancient Rome. Every element of the painting contributes to clarifying the theme, from the attitude of the defeated generals on the left, to the pose of the victorious commander on the right, whose magnanimous gesture is accompanied by an artificial light that surrounds him, and whose scenic presence is amplified by the empty steps in front of him. 

Giuseppe Bezzuoli (Florence 1784 –1855)
Portrait of Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi with her daughter Elisa Napoleona 
1814 c.
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 5643

Giuseppe Bezzuoli, one of the court painters and pupil of Pietro Benvenuti, portrayed Elisa Baciocchi in a painting that perfectly combines public and private dimension. Elisa was reigning over Florence, which we can admire in the background, and she was portrayed in a space that is among public and private, being open thanks to the view of the city, but at the same time closed by a parapet and a column decorated with acanthus leaves. The absorbed look of the woman is directed at the observer (the painter does not evade her slight squint), as she embraces her little daughter who, while contemplating her mother, is holding a dove, symbol of innocence. The classicism of the setting and costume details is mitigated by the representation of maternal feelings, while the precision of the brush strokes, typical of the Florentine tradition, is combined with a colour scheme of Venetian style. It is possible to identify some elements of Titian and Savoldo, particularly in the iridescent silk of the little girl's dress, or in the humid, caliginous atmosphere of the background.

Ary Scheffer (Dordrecht 1795 – Argenteuil 1858)
Portrait of Matilde Bonaparte Demidoff
1844 c.
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 2366

The Florentine salon of the Demidoff family was open to artists and intellectuals, and the collection of French and English modern art was particularly important for Macchiaioli painters. Nicholas Demidoff's son, Anatoly, married one of Napoleon's granddaughters, thus granting a rank of nobility to the family, which would always remain pro-Napoleonic. The portrait of Matilde Bonaparte, whose marriage to Anatoly was short-lived, bears witness to the imperial taste of the Demidoff family (see the red Greek fret on the wall and the architectural and sculptural details of the setting), although it belongs to a later period, as evidenced by the dress and the refined modelling of the figures that echoes those of Ingres. The painting was executed in Paris and then sent to Florence, where it was placed in its luxurious frame decorated with the imperial monogram and eagle. The austere colours and the severe pose of the woman are the sign of a change in taste that characterised the 19th century, with a new interest in psychological research that in this case is still subtle and elusive.

Room 5; Rooms 14-15

The academies of fine arts had a preference for subjects of history, interpreted according to a language inspired by Renaissance art, particularly that of 16th century Veneto. With the first uprisings of Risorgimento aimed at unifying Italy and liberating it from foreign domination, the historical events of the past became a warning and an example for the present. This phase took the name of historical Romanticism, because just like the historical novel, such as Alessandro Manzoni's The Bethroted, it provided the key to interpreting the present through the facts of the past and the vicissitudes of fictional characters.
In 1861, after the unification of Italy, it was necessary to make the Italians: from ancient Rome to the splendours of Renaissance, the glorious cultural past was functional to create the new images of the nation. As a consequence, the national exhibitions of the second half of the 19th century recovered illustrious themes, displaying great paintings of ancient history, epic subjects, or religious themes (Ecce homo by Antonio Ciseri), all in large format and characterised by an accurate and at times virtuosic painting, as well as attentive to both costume details and powerful scenography and lighting effects. The careful description of the feelings and physiognomy of the individual characters was combined with attempts to reconstruct the past from a philological perspective, which stemmed from a positivist approach to history derived from the frequent visits to Florence of the Neapolitan painter Domenico Morelli, as well as from his contacts with the famous historian Pasquale Villari (Expulsion of the Duke of Athens by Stefano Ussi).

Rooms 1, 5, 17, 19, 24, Saloncino delle statue

The plastic expressions typical of the neoclassical movement, which were embodied by the ideal and polished faces of Canova and his followers, as well as by the statues of mythological subjects made by Luigi Bienaimé (Zephy) and Stefano Ricci (Apollo and Hyacinth), entered a crisis when the Napoleonic regime was succeeded by the Restoration period and the reign of the Lorraine family over Tuscany. This political change led also to an aesthetic change, which saw the gradual overcoming of classicist principles linked to the primacy of an ideal and abstract beauty, in favour of a sculptural art characterised by a more direct imitation of reality inspired by the sculpture of Tuscan masters of the 15th century, in accordance with the dictates of the new purist movement.

Giovanni Dupré (Siena 1817 – Fiesole, Florence 1882)
Dying Abel 
1846-51
Bronze; Gen. n. 634

In the beginning, this new focus on realism and naturalism led artists to seek a new language that could bring historical, biblical or mythological themes closer to modern perception. For this reason, the biblical subject of the gentle Abel killed by his brother, Cain, was represented by Giovanni Dupré in the form of a young commoner, who is portrayed in a pose that encompasses and narrates the tragedy that has taken place. The dishevelled body exposed to violence, the head tilted back, the half-open mouth, as well as the blow inflicted by his brother on the forehead, are in contrast with the harmonious forms of the young man's body and with the attention dedicated by the sculptor to the long hair, the details of the vegetation on the ground, and the fur.

The work was so similar to the real model used by Dupré that the artist was accused of having taken a cast from the living body to create the first version of this sculpture, but he proved to his detractors (with the help of a measuring tape) that he had slimmed down the robust body of the boy by using another model, his friend and painter Ferdinando Folchi. After creating the statue in clay, Dupré made that of Cain (also exhibited here), and then both characters in marble and bronze, upon commission by the Tsar's daughter and Grand Duke Leopold II.

Rooms 6, 10, 11, 12, 13

From the great historical paintings to the experimental panels of the Macchiaioli: the itinerary of the gallery allows to experience the disruptive effect that these small subjects of contemporary life, which were taken from real life and outlined with rapid painting, had on the Florentine artistic context of the mid 19th century.
“The word 'macchia' is giving rise to a misunderstanding even among the Macchiaioli. Many of them believe that it means a sketch, and that the study of possible shades and parts within the part, which allows to actually finish the sketch, excludes the 'macchia' from the painting. Here is the misunderstanding; the 'macchia' is the basis, and as such it remains in the painting. The study of forms and research on the details have the task of accounting for the parts that are in it, without destroying or grinding it. The reality is created through spots of colour and chiaroscuro, each one with its own value that is measured according to a ratio” (A. Cecioni, Scritti e Ricordi, Florence 1905, p. 333). With these words, the sculptor and painter Adriano Cecioni defined the meaning of 'macchia'. Artists started to leave the academies to paint what they saw, rejecting rules and conventions to study the masters of the past, without worshipping or imitating them. They abandoned edifying themes (historical, sacred, mythological...) in favour of the reality, which was rendered with a synthetic painting and without those details that the eye is not able to grasp.
The works of the Macchiaioli are exhibited all along the gallery, forming part of certain collections that are significant for the museum's history (Banti's Legacy and Martelli's Legacy), or in rooms dedicated to specific episodes or themes: from paintings of contemporary life (the Piagentina School with Silvestro Lega's  Singing a ditty), to paintings related to the Italian Risorgimento (such as The Italian camp after the Battle of Magenta by Giovanni Fattori).

Rooms 7, 8, 17

The 19th century has been defined the century of the bourgeoisie: social, economic and technological revolutions opened up new social dynamics and new ways of artistic expression. The advent of photography placed the focus on the relationship with real life, thus responding to the need to highlight details of costume and setting that accounted for the social role and wealth of the characters.

Antonio Ciseri (Ronco sopra Ascona, Canton Ticino 1821 – Florence 1891)
Portrait of Felice Ciantelli
1864 c.
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 5374

The portraits by Antonio Ciseri, a Swiss painter who was active in Tuscany, enjoyed great popularity in Florence in the second half of the 19th century, due to the fact that they accurately rendered the social condition and character of the protagonist through pose, gaze and physiognomy. In this portrait, the regular shape of the young woman's face is inscribed in the oval of the painting, which is reminiscent of the format of large photographic portraits of the past. At the same time, the long nose and small, slightly contracted mouth, as well as the eyes fixed on the observer, are evidence of the painter's adherence to reality, without idealisation, also paying attention to the psychological dimension. At the same time, the remarkable colour combinations created for the head of this young woman (the brown of her hair with the blue of the bow, the yellow of the background and the shades of the skin), as well as the virtuosic and infinite variations of white in the dress, prove the painter's great technical skill.

Even the layout of the Ball Room highlights with extraordinary effectiveness this decisive phase of transition: the plaster sculpture of Menoeceus, the last Roman work made by Aristodemo Costoli in 1830, was in fact still strongly influenced by an academic orientation based on the study of ancient art, showing affinities with the pose of the Niobids and the Dying Galata preserved in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. On the opposite front, the plaster sculpture of Saint Sebastian by Pio Fedi, which was made more than ten years later and also sent to the Academy as proof of his studies in Rome, is situated in a context of renewal of plastic art, in the wake of Lorenzo Bartolini's teaching culminated in the scandalous presentation of a hunchbacked model in academic lecture halls. The master broke the taboo of depicting a deformed person, directing his pupils towards a legitimate representation of the real world in all its manifestations, as long as it was an instrument of high moral concepts. In the same room, drawing inspiration from the contemporary pictorial expressions of Bezzuoli and Hayez, Odoardo Fantacchiotti takes advantage of the biblical theme to depict a voluptuous female nude, thus giving further evidence of the sculptor's adherence to the Bartolinian method of beauty obtained through a selection of the best parts of various models, which are subsequently integrated according to criteria of harmony that are similar to those of the great masters of Renaissance and far removed from the icy perfection of Greek and Roman statues

Rooms 9, 11

In the 19th century, landscape painting saw an important development due to a new focus on the natural element that became one of the cornerstones of new artistic trends. It became increasingly more common for painters to go out and paint in the countryside, en plein air, and then eventually finish their work in the studio. From the French School of Barbizon (a movement of landscape painting that operated around Fontainbleau, in the south of Paris) they imported certain habits such as the use of the black mirror (i.e. with a blackened surface), which reflected shapes and spaces by abstracting them from colour and clearly identifying light ratios as well as weights of solid and void volumes.
The experience of the School of Staggia was the immediate precursor to Macchiaioli's reflections on landscape painting: artists such as De Tivoli and Markò were painting in the Sienese countryside in search of a piece of reality where light could create the scene, not a postcard landscape

Antonio Fontanesi (Reggio Emilia 1818 – Turin 1882)
After the rain
1861
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 82

Also the Emilian artist Antonio Fontanesi, first from Piedmont and then from Switzerland, travelled to France in the 1950s and was fascinated by the research of the Barbizon School. In London, he studied the full-bodied and lustrous painterly matter of Turner and Constable. He then moved to Florence where he spent time with the Macchiaioli, sharing with them an interest for realism: the observation of nature in different seasons, times of the day and atmospheric conditions. This idea was far removed from the conventions of the academy that generally gave the landscape the role of background in works with historical, religious or mythological subjects. However, Fontanesi's realism presented also a personal point of view, which was liberated from the idea of objectivity and impartiality proclaimed by realism: the artist's subjectivity, from a Romantic perspective, was the measure according to which reality should be observed and depicted. The painter's eye captures the beauty of a fleeting atmospheric moment, the splendid green of a pasture after the storm, reproducing on canvas a natural vision that harmoniously blends landscape, animals and the human figure. This painting, which was purchased at the 1861 National Exhibition of Florence directly by King Victor Emmanuel II, is a representation of how landscape painting allows artists to freely express themselves, searching for a special symbiosis with nature itself.

Odoardo Borrani (Pisa 1833 – Florence 1905)
Castiglioncello
1865c.
Oil on panel; Gen. n. 325

In continuity with similar research on light, volume and space, this small view of nature is composed with extreme synthesis, presenting just a few elements defined by compact blocks of colour, almost like a marble inlay.

The markedly horizontal composition allows for a slow, rhythmic reading of the scene that is revealed before our eyes thanks to the splendour of the summer sun along the Tuscan coast. Odoardo Borrani was among the protagonists of the season of 'macchia' painting that took place in Diego Martelli's estate in Castiglioncello.

Cristiano Banti (Santa Croce sull'Arno, Pisa 1824 – Montemurlo, Prato 1904)
Woodcutters with faggots 
1878-1884
Oil on panel; Giorn. n. 1668

Born from a wealthy family, Cristiano Banti was perhaps the only one among the Macchiaioli who was not forced to struggle with poverty and could afford to help his painter friends by buying their works. This allowed him to create an important collection that his heirs partly donated to the Gallery of Modern Art.
The academic training, together with his love for ancient art, his travels to Paris, his presence in Florentine salons and international events in Florence, provided Banti with a wide range of ideas that joined the anti-academic and revolutionary impulses resulting from the lively discussions at Caffè Michelangelo. His study of 14th and 15th-century art and his investigation of reality with the famous black mirror led him to depict scenes of country life with the simplicity and solemnity of a sacred procession, almost as in a fresco made by Giotto or Paolo Uccello, or in the front of an ancient sarcophagus. The power of light and the low angle of the point of view lend monumentality to the passage of these women, called 'ravagers', who were the humble protagonists of life in the fields. After the wood had been gathered, they were the last workers who passed by to retrieve what the woodcutters had left behind.

Giovanni Boldini (Ferrara 1842 – Paris 1931)
Alaide Banti
1866
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 1660

“So far portraits have been made with only one criterion, that of having a united background so that the head of the model could stand out and not be disturbed. This is a ridiculous precept, as it is proved by Mr Boldini and his portraits where the background of his studio with paintings, prints and other objects attached to the wall does not spoil the model's head in any way. If in nature the head has a volume with objects placed behind it, why should it not be the same for art if art is an imitation of nature? This was the idea of Mr Boldini, and he was right”. (Telemaco Signorini, L'Esposizione di Belle Arti della Società d'Incoraggiamento in Firenze, VII, in “Gazzettino delle Arti del Disegno” 9 February 1867).

Alaide Banti, Cristiano's daughter, was evidently tired of holding the pose in her living room, as she was leaning against a small table in a decidedly unconventional position for a portrait, but one that perfectly rendered the mood of the young girl.

The young Boldini was spending his time in Florence, where he frequented Macchiaioli painters and international salons, befriended Cristiano Banti, and had a liaison with the young Alaide, which was abruptly interrupted by the painter's departure for Paris.

Once in France, soon Boldini gained popularity, becoming the celebrated portrait painter of the Belle Époque. By treasuring the lesson of synthesis and attention to reality learnt in Florence, he developed his own style that aimed to restore, with rapid brush strokes, the relationship between the model and their environment, the social status of the portrayed person, as well as their psychological profile, as it can be appreciated in this early work.

Federico Zandomeneghi (Venice 1841 – Paris 1917)
Portrait of Diego Martelli at his desk 
1870
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 265

Portrait of Diego Martelli with red cap
1879
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 230

Diego Martelli was the mentor of Macchiaioli painters, the young scion of a wealthy Florentine family who abandoned his studies on natural sciences to devote himself to art activism. The heritage of his father allowed him to host his painter friends in an estate on the coast of Livorno, thus giving rise to the so-called Castiglioncello School, a group of artists who painted en plein air and formulated a pictorial language that reproduced the wild nature of the area.
Anti-academics in art, patriots and republicans in politics, non-conformists in life, the Macchiaioli, together with Diego, shared battles and controversies. He showed his artist friends the research initiated in France by the Impressionists, which in his opinion was similar to theirs. After lavishing his wealth on a generous patronage, he donated his valuable collection of paintings and sculptures to the new Gallery of Modern Art in Florence, thus linking it to the city of Florence.
Before returning to Venice and then moving to Paris, the Venetian member of the group, Federico Zandomeneghi, portrayed him in these two snapshots: the photographic style and the relaxed attitude of the portrayed man, who is depicted at work in his dressing gown or seated in an armchair, are evidence of the informal relationship that Martelli had with the painters

Camille Pissarro (Charlotte Amalie, Isole Vergini 1830 – Paris 1903)
The vegetable garden 
1878
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 266

Martelli brought to Florence two paintings by Pissarro to show his painter friends the analogy that, in his opinion, existed between Impressionist and Macchiaioli research. Realism and light were the protagonists of painting for both Impressionists and Macchiaioli, but for the Tuscan movement perspective and volume remained indispensable elements of the composition, thus leading to the failure of Martelli's plan.

Camille Pissarro (Charlotte Amalie, Isole Vergini 1830 – Paris 1903)
Landscape in Pontoise
1877
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 269

The only artists who were willing to recognise some similarities with the work of their transalpine colleagues were Signorini (the most international of the group) and Lega, who in the 1970s was developing a style that resembled Impressionist painting, especially in portraits. Fattori considered this way of painting to be too rapid and superficial, lacking the structure he would have never renounced.

Giovanni Fattori (Livorno 1825 – Florence 1908)
The rotunda of the Palmieri baths 
1866
Oil on panel; Gen. n. 220

Ever since Oscar Ghiglia published this painting in his memorable monograph on Fattori in 1913, it became one of the artist's most appreciated works. “Beautiful like an ancient Chinese painting”, Ghiglia used these words to describe it, comparing the painting with the brilliant purity of Japanese lacquerware, thus recalling its similarity with the background landscapes of Beato Angelico's works.
This panel expresses the quintessence of Macchiaioli technique, a process of analysis and synthesis that distilled the essence of reality to render it in small pieces of everyday life. The analysis of reality is carried out through a detailed study of the composition: a group of women is arranged in a horizontal plane, cadenced, one next to the other like in an ancient relief. The synthesis lies in the realisation of the scene, which is built by juxtaposing masses of colour, almost as if in a sculpture, thus freeing the painting from superfluous details (the faces are not represented, the clothes are brush strokes of colour with very few details...). This articulated creative process is testified by a conspicuous number of preparatory drawings, as well as by reflectography tests that revealed the presence of variants and reconsiderations underneath the pictorial surface.
The work was painted in Livorno during the last summer of Fattori's wife before her death. It would always remain the property of the artist who was particularly fond of it. It was purchased by the Gallery Commission in 1908 from Fattori's heir, Giovanni Malesci.

Antonio Ciseri (Ronco sopra Ascona, Canton Ticino 1821 – Florence 189)
Ecce Homo
1891 c.
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 31

The description of the feelings of secondary characters and the (pseudo) archaeological attention to the reconstruction of a distant past are tools of historical Romanticism, which were recovered at the end of the century by virtuosos such as Antonio Ciseri, a celebrated portraitist of the Tuscan bourgeoisie from the second half of the 19th century. In this work, the absolute mastery in rendering different materials, as well as shades of the same colour (such as the sequence of whites in Pilate's robe), is combined with the research carried out to represent Judea in Roman times, achieving fanciful results (the Antonine Column in the centre, Egyptian capitals in the temple of Jerusalem...), but of great fascination. An unusual perspective keeps the protagonist of the story (a magnificent Jesus, at the same time defenceless and statuary) on his back, and presents an episode that was previously unknown: Pilate's wife who seeks comfort in her handmaid because the tragic premonitory dream she had the night before, the condemnation of a righteous man, is coming true in front of her eyes. This sort of behind-the-scenes episode was taken from the interpretation of the apocryphal Gospels proposed in the second half of the 19th century by Ernest Renan, who studied the story of Jesus with a scientific approach and published a text that gained widespread attention, La Vie de Jesus.

Vittorio Corcos (Livorno 1859 – Florence 1933)
The daughter of Jack La Bolina
1888
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 1580

Riccardo Nobili (Florence 1859 - Venice 1939)
Caffè Cornelio
1885
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 829

After describing and depicting the Italian independence and unification, the exhibition itinerary offers a taste of France and Belle Époque in the Tuscan setting. With the arrival of the Savoy family, Florence witnessed to a series of important changes in the urban layout of the city, with the demolition of the walls and the creation of modern boulevards that encircled the city, together with the destruction of the ghetto and Mercato Vecchio, and the creation of Piazza Vittorio (today's Piazza della Repubblica). If a large part of the citizens experienced these changes with melancholy, some social classes found a role in the new course of things: a wealthy entrepreneurial bourgeoisie was asserting itself, bringing along new habits such as frequenting cafés, of Parisian style, or living in suburban villas. The triumph of new fashion trends was celebrated in portraits where the luxury and modernity of the setting was adequately represented, reproducing the ambiance of Parisian salons. Vittorio Corcos was one of the protagonists of this season of portrait painting: after a fruitful experience in Paris where he joined the group of the merchant Goupil, he settled in Florence where he frequented D'Annunzio and Pascoli, and became the painter of the Florentine ladies at the turn of the century, portraying them with refined and polished brush strokes that aimed at satisfying their desire for fame.

Rooms 18, 20

The animated meetings at Caffè Michelangiolo in Via Larga in Florence were already a thing of the past, as were the proclamations against the conventions of the academy and the battles for the unification of Italy. Macchiaioli masters were now elaborating their own language, some of them by opening up to international horizons, others by developing the original concept of 'macchia', often while paying attention to social themes. Some of their pupils, such as Francesco Gioli or Egisto Ferroni (see Wildflowers or At the fountain) chose to work on large paintings, giving the themes of work and life in the fields a bucolic, pleasant and light tone, quite different from Fattori's scenes of peasants and shepherds.

After mid-century, the affirmation of Verismo in literature, as well as in figurative arts, found one of its most accomplished examples in the poetics of the Macchiaioli and in the plastic art of Adriano Cecioni. His work The Suicide, which arrived from Naples where Cecioni obtained a scholarship, was considered an immoral subject by the academic institution called upon to judge it. Having lost faith in the ideals of Risorgimento, the sculpture lacked the patriotic rhetoric of the exemplary gesture, and was exclusively attributable to the individual and private sphere, without ethical or heroic justifications.

On a more commercial side, related to the production of small-format statues, Cecioni managed to succeed in expressing his complete emancipation from academic orthodoxy, adhering to a more straightforward and immediate realism. Some extraordinary examples are the works Lady buttoning up her glove and Nanà, which belonged to the series of Cocottes made in Paris by the Tuscan sculptor. In 1870, the sculptor moved to Paris, where he adapted his language to contemporary French small-scale sculpture, which he admired for its expressive force that recalled Dantan's caricatures and Daumier's grotesque characters.

Egisto Ferroni (Lastra a Signa, Florence 1835 – Florence 1912)
The woodcutter 
1885
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 320

Telemaco Signorini (Florence 1835 –1901)
September morning in Settignano 
1883-90
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 271

The end of August in Pietramala
1889
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 255

Giovanni Fattori (Livorno 1825 – Florence 1908)
The sheep jump 
1887
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 2020

Between the 1970s and 1980s, in analogy with the painting of fields in France, the size of the works increased and the narrative became choral, festive and dotted with rhetoric or vernacular references. If the students of the Macchiaioli, including Egisto Ferroni, beautifully depicted the rhythms and rituals of the countryside with monumental figures of peasants in the foreground, such as this resting Woodcutter, in the same years the Macchiaioli continued with their path of experimentation. In The sheep jump, Giovanni Fattori articulates a complex tale in which the eye of the observer follows many directions, encountering men and beasts that together describe the hard life in the fields, while expressing a relationship of proportion and measure with the environment. In Signorini's square views, the eye is enraptured by scenes of apparent simplicity, which conceal a complex compositional structure behind a moment of beauty and poetry.
The Macchiaioli saw in the new generation the possibility of an evolution of realist painting and of the 'macchia', therefore they encouraged them, but at the same time they continued to investigate nature and contemporary life through a path of rigour and formal study.

Rooms 21-24

Between the 1970s and 1980s, in analogy with the painting of fields in France, the size of the works increased and the narrative became choral, festive and dotted with rhetoric or vernacular references. If the students of the Macchiaioli, including Egisto Ferroni, beautifully depicted the rhythms and rituals of the countryside with monumental figures of peasants in the foreground, such as this resting Woodcutter, in the same years the Macchiaioli continued with their path of experimentation. In The sheep jump, Giovanni Fattori articulates a complex tale in which the eye of the observer follows many directions, encountering men and beasts that together describe the hard life in the fields, while expressing a relationship of proportion and measure with the environment. In Signorini's square views, the eye is enraptured by scenes of apparent simplicity, which conceal a complex compositional structure behind a moment of beauty and poetry.
The Macchiaioli saw in the new generation the possibility of an evolution of realist painting and of the 'macchia', therefore they encouraged them, but at the same time they continued to investigate nature and contemporary life through a path of rigour and formal study.

Adolfo Tommasi (Livorno 1851 – Florence 1933)
Spring 
1889
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 323

A large painting opens up in front of us with a very close foreground, almost inviting us to become part of the scene by crossing the threshold of the painting. However, this is not a historical or religious subject, nor it is a celebration of peasant life such as those depicted at the end of the 19th century: the observer is now walking among artichoke plants and turkeys, under an unsettled sky, and with slender bare branches coming alive thanks to an impalpable spring life. It is the poetics of small things, of the passing of seasons, of the hours of the day, similar to that of Giovanni Pascoli's Myricae, of which Adolfo Tommasi was the illustrator of the 1894 edition. The attention to realism that the painter had absorbed from Macchiaioli masters, particularly from Silvestro Lega, is translated into the botanical details displayed in the foreground, thus recalling the Japanese prints that were popular in Europe, and into a careful rendering of the season and time of the day, with an approach that opened up to the Symbolist culture of the end of the century.

Plinio Nomellini (Livorno 1866 – Florence 1943)
First Birthday 
1914
Oil on canvas; Depots GAM n. 4

Plinio Nomellini trained at the Florentine Academy with Giovanni Fattori and frequented Caffè Volturno where Macchiaioli painters and their students usually met. In this context, he developed a special attention to the rendering of spaces and volumes, animating them with a new type of brush stroke that for Fattori was so difficult to understand. He used small touches of primary colours that, when put together in a pure form, made the painterly matter brighter and more vibrant, in accordance with the principles of pointillism and divisionism. With this technique, Nomellini animated interior and exterior spaces, presenting a lively and vital painting of landscapes and scenes of everyday life, mixing shapes and spaces with light, which appeared to be emanated directly from the painted colours.

Medardo Rosso (Turin 1858 – Milan 1928)
Grande Rieuse (Donna che ride)
1891
Bronze; Gen. n. 677

The progressive formal dissolution of the very material of sculpture was characteristic of art at the end of the century, in parallel with the research of the Impressionist movement. The most mature expression of this artistic movement can be found in the production of Medardo Rosso, whose works, which were often inspired by the same settings frequented by French painters - theatres and concert halls - stand out for their choice of urban subjects and their ability to depict the unrepeatable moments of life, rather than the pedantic description of details and accessories. In this way, Medardo broke the conventions of sculpture, showing the disintegration of vibrating matter that almost dissolves when in contact with light.

Plinio Nomellini (Livorno 1866 – Florence 1943)
Factory accident 
1889
Oil on canvas; Giorn. n. 5402

Nomellini's artistic life was intertwined with his political life, just as it was for the Macchiaioli, who recognised themselves in this young man and never failed to support him.
In 1894, the painter, who sympathised with workers and socialist movements at the end of the 19th century, was arrested and tried for anarchy in Genoa; Diego Martelli promoted a popular petition for him and Telemaco Signorini testified in his favour. This context paved the way for a series of important paintings that made Nomellini an exponent of the socialist and humanitarian movement of which the works of Pellizza da Volpedo were the most famous example, as it was the case with this intense painting dedicated to a theme that unfortunately is still tragically relevant. The dramatic nature of the subject is well exemplified by the dark tones, the backlighting effect (note the contrast with the bright exterior) and the oppressive composition. The story is narrated by means of the position of the characters, excluding their faces and expressions, so as to denounce the dehumanisation caused by factory work.

Rooms 26-30

In the early 20th century, Florence represented many things: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, international presences, the ferment of artistic avant-gardes (Futurism above all), literary journals, the cult of the antique but also of the modern, collections of European art (Cézanne was among the most popular painters)...
After the First World War and the revolutionary season of artistic avant-gardes, in Italy the so-called “Return to Order” of the 1920s paved the way for a revival of figuration thanks to a continuity with the artistic tradition of Renaissance.
It was precisely during these years that the Gallery of Modern Art was being established, whose acquisitions of contemporary art were an expression of this cultural temperament. As a matter of fact, the 20th century artworks purchased and put on display were examples of figurative art.

Among the 20th century artists in the Gallery of Modern Art, should be noted a French painter who lived and worked in Italy, particularly in Florence, donating a large number of her works to the museum. Among portraits, drawings and studies, with interiors and scenes of everyday life, Elisabeth Chaplin (Fontainebleau, Paris 1890 – Florence 1982) proposed a familiar painting characterised by a language whose bright colours were influenced by the style of Matisse and the Fauves, and whose soft, synthetic lines were similar to those of the Nabis, particularly Maurice Denis, whom she knew and frequented, while her respect for form and perspective recall the lesson of Fattori, of which the French artist was a pupil. At the beginning of the 20th century, Elisabeth Chaplin's artistic repertoire, which looked at contemporary trends but clearly drew on tradition, was perfectly in tune with the path chosen by the purchasing commissions of the gallery.

Galileo Chini (Florence 1873 – 1956)
Faith (1912); Peace (1911-1914); Indolence (1911-1914)
Oil on canvas; Gen. n. 442, Giorn. nn. 1628, 1629

The gallery ends with another example of 20th century art and internationality: Galileo Chini's exotic triptych. Between 1911 and 1914, the Tuscan painter and ceramist was called upon to decorate the palace of the King of Siam. He returned with a load of visions, colours, shapes and lights that still today express the fascination of faraway places, meditation and silence, of fragrant incense, fireworks, lanterns and ancient civilisations. The refined Symbolist culture of the painter was enriched by his contact with distant cultures, which in this work is expressed by means of a soft, flaky and smoky painting, as well as by the unusual format that throughout the whole triptych suggests a slow, paused, meditative and almost ascetic pace thanks to the marked verticality of the panels.

The selection of 20th century collections currently displayed in the gallery presents some works by painters who represented Italian art in the first half of the century, forming part of the so-called “return to order” in the period between the two wars: a recovery of figuration in continuity with the artistic tradition of Renaissance, after the destruction of the Great War and the subversion of rules and canons of representation by the avant-gardes. The work is a Sea View made by Carlo Carrà, where colour plays a leading role, in a rarefaction of forms and spaces that defines a silent and metaphysical dimension of reality. After a Futurist period where he depicted speed and the progressive decomposition of forms, the painter returned to a figurative language, in tune with De Chirico's Metaphysics. Also Gino Severini followed a similar path, the work on display makes a clear reference to classicism thanks to the Greek tragedy mask, albeit represented with mobile and vibrant brush strokes, thus recalling the Divisionist experiences of his youth. On the other hand, Giorgio De Chirico was the painter of Metaphysical Art, an avant-garde movement that aimed to subvert the rules of representation not just by breaking down forms, like Futurism or Cubism, but by breaking down the mechanisms of meaning through unprecedented associations of forms and places, which provided a dreamlike effect despite being prospectively delineated. This still life does not display an overtly metaphysical language, but the fruit takes on a monumentality that abstracts the scene from an ordinary present, also thanks to the full-bodied brush strokes, the high horizon, and the backdrop with flamboyant plant elements.