Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori

The Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori is the civic contemporary art museum of Livorno, located in Villa Mimbelli on Via San Jacopo in Acquaviva 65, a few blocks west of the Terraza Mascagni in Tuscany, Italy. Founded in 1877 as a municipal art gallery, it was named after Giovanni Fattori in the early 1930s and moved to its present home in Villa Mimbelli in 1994. The museum holds particular significance as a center for the study and display of the Macchiaioli, the 19th-century Italian movement of which Fattori was a leading figure, alongside post-Macchiaioli and divisionist works.

The museum originated in 1877 when Livorno's municipal administration established a pinacoteca to gather paintings by contemporary Italian artists including Giovanni Fattori, Enrico Pollastrini, and Cesare Bartolena. The collection expanded with works by Raffaello Gambogi, Silvestro Lega, Guglielmo Micheli, Adolfo Tommasi, and Enrico Banti. Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, archaeological finds and a numismatic collection donated by Enrico Chiellini in 1893 were added, along with Bartolena's painting Volontari livornesi. Upon Fattori's death in 1908, the museum acquired 250 drawings and 150 etchings by the master. A new headquarters in Piazza Guerrazzi opened in 1896, and the museum was named after Giovanni Fattori in the early 1930s. During World War II, the collection was evacuated from the city; Enrico Pollastrini's large canvas The Exiles of Siena was destroyed in Allied bombardment. After the war, part of the collection was installed on the second floor of Villa Fabbricotti while the remainder was dispersed among municipal offices and warehouses. The collection was further enriched with works by Plinio Nomellini, Guglielmo Micheli, Serafino De Tivoli, Oscar Ghiglia, and Ulvi Liegi, and a cartoon attributed to Amedeo Modigliani was purchased. In 1994, the museum moved to Villa Mimbelli, inaugurated by President of the Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. The museum also hosts the annual Combat Prize.

The museum's holdings center on Giovanni Fattori and the Macchiaioli movement, supplemented by post-Macchiaioli painters and divisionist artists. The collection encompasses paintings, drawings, and etchings, with particular depth in 19th-century Tuscan art. Historical holdings once included plaster sketches by Temistocle Guerrazzi and Bertel Thorvaldsen, a bas-relief by Francois Duquesnoy, 17th-century Flemish school paintings, 15th- and 16th-century Madonna and Child paintings, three bronze masks by Pietro Tacca, official garments of city gonfalonieri and priors, memorabilia of General Enrico Cialdini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Guerrazzi, portraits of distinguished Livornese citizens, and an archaeological section with Iron Age tombs, seven Villanovan urns from Quercianella, fibulae, rings, lances, silver and bronze horse bits, copper coins from the 4th-5th centuries, and Roman vases. These archaeological and historical items are no longer part of the current museum display, which focuses on the art collection.

The second floor houses the core Fattori collection, Intensive including Carica di Cavalleria a Montebello (1862), La Signora Martelli a Castiglioncello (1867), Assalto alla Madonna della Scoperta (1868), Giornata grigia (1893), Mandrie maremmane (1893), Lungomare ad Antignano (1894), Ritratto della terza moglie (1905), Campagna romana (1896), and Torre Rossa (1875). The Macchiaioli room displays works by Silvestro Lega, Telemaco Signorini, Cristiano Banti, Serafino De Tivoli, Vincenzo Cabianca, and Giovanni Boldini. The Tommasi brothers, Angiolo, Adolfo, and Ludovico, are represented in dedicated rooms. Portrait works include pieces by Vittorio Matteo Corcos and Michele Gordigiani. Post-Macchiaioli and Divisionist holdings feature Eugenio Cecconi, Raffaello Gambogi, Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, Benvenuto Benvenuti, and Plinio Nomellini. The first floor holds Stradina Toscana, a painting attributed to Amedeo Modigliani, in the post-Macchiaioli room, and Nomellini's monumental Incipit nova aetas (408 x 310 cm), depicting the arrival of the Blackshirts in Florence. A 15th-century Crucifixion by Neri di Bicci is also present.

The museum occupies Villa Mimbelli, a historic residence whose architectural features shape the visitor experience across three floors. The ground floor contains the Sala Rossa, the Mimbelli family's former reception hall with allegorical ceiling paintings by Eugenio Giuseppe Conti representing Progress, Industry, Commerce, and Peace, the Sala Turca, and the Sala Moresca, an Arab-style smoking room. A grand staircase adorned with putti inspired by Luca della Robbia leads to the first floor. This level features the Sala degli Specchi and Salottino Gi make-up yellow, both frescoed by Annibale Gatti, the former with figures from Italian literature, the latter with the historical theme Inaugurazione del Monumento ai Quattro Mori, displaying works by Renato Natali and sculptures by Italo Griselli and Angiolo Vannetti. The Sala Nera is a smoking room with ebony and ivory decoration. The adjacent former granaries now serve as temporary exhibition spaces.

The Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori is located at Villa Mimbelli, Via San Jacopo in Acquaviva 65, Livorno, Italy, a short distance west of the Terraza Mascagni. The museum is owned by the municipality of Livorno and operates as the city's civic contemporary art museum. Its website is https://www.museofattori.livorno.it. The current installation presents the art collection across the ground, first, and second floors of the villa, with temporary exhibitions held in the former granaries. Notable past exhibitions include Giovanni Fattori tra epopea e mito, held from 22 April to 6 July 2008 on the centenary of Fattori's death, and a 1997 exhibition presenting the artistic heritage of the Cassa di Risparmi di Livorno, revealing Livornese artistic trends between the two world wars.