A journey through the waves of art and the depth of Giovanni Fattori’s pictorial gaze. Saturday, May 24, 2025, at 6:30 p.m., at Cascina’s Theater City, is scheduled The Sea of Giovanni Fattori, a lecture-show interweaving art, literature and theater, signed by Federico Giannini, journalist, art critic and editor-in-chief of Finestre sull’Arte magazine. Narrating Fattori’s sea on the 200th anniversary of the artist’s birth, in words, images and readings, will be Federico Giannini himself along with actor and theater director Nicholas Fanucchi, who will read texts from historical and literary sources. The event is part of the official program of Art View Festival, an exhibition that promotes new perspectives on contemporary art and visual culture.
The protagonist of the lecture is Giovanni Fattori (Livorno, 1825 - Florence, 1908), a central figure of the Macchiaioli movement and one of the greatest Italian painters of the 19th century. Giovanni Fattori’s painting is best known for his military and rural scenes, his portraits of soldiers and peasants, and his use of “macchia” as a language of truth. But in his production there is a less investigated, yet decisive constant: the sea. His attentive, empathetic and often melancholy gaze rests on the landscape and the human soul, finding in the sea a recurring and deeply evocative motif. The sea for Fattori is not only a naturalistic backdrop: it is a symbol of freedom, solitude, destiny; it is a living presence, charged with narrative tension, often a silent witness to episodes of war, everyday or intimate.
The sea for Fattori is a narrative, symbolic and spiritual element. It is the sea of Tuscan beaches, of lookouts on horseback, of military exercises, of still, light-filled days. It is a sea that breathes with the characters, that amplifies the loneliness of the fishermen, that frames moments of reflection or melancholy.
Federico Giannini and Nicholas Fanucchi will take the audience on a journey full of visual and historical suggestions, recounting Fattori’s seafaring painting through images, quotations, technical analysis and biographical forays, with the accuracy of the scholar and the passion of the popularizer. Nicholas Fanucchi, in particular, will interpret selected excerpts from historical texts, letters and reflections on the sea and art, creating a bridge between word and image, thought and voice.
Giovanni Fattori’s The Sea is an opportunity to rediscover an artist and to explore a theme-that of the sea-that spans centuries of art history, laden with symbols and meanings, now more relevant than ever in an age when the relationship between man and nature returns to the center of cultural debate. Giovanni Fattori’s Sea is designed not only for art lovers or insiders, but for anyone who wants to be carried away by a narrative that combines the pleasure of discovery with that of listening. It is an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of painting, on the relationship between man and landscape, and on the function of the artist as a witness of his own time.
The event is free admission, subject to availability. Reservations are recommended: all information on the Theater City website.
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| The sea of Giovanni Fattori: at the theater the lecture-show with Federico Giannini and Nicola Fanucchi |
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