Group of 19th-century Tuscan painters who reacted against the rule-bound art academies and looked to nature for instruction.
The Macchiaioli felt that patches ( macchia ) of colour were the most significant aspect of painting. They believed that the effect of a painting on the spectator should derive from the painted surface itself, rather than from any ideological message or narrative. The Macchiaioli used a sketch technique to record their initial impressions of nature
often as seen from a distance
by means of colour and light. Their theory, similar to that of the French Impressionists , was even more concerned with the experimental use of colour. The most outstanding artist of the group was the Florentine Giovanni Fattori.