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 of Livorno, region of Tuscany, Italy.
The collection includes a number of works and biographical items associated with the native painter Giovanni Fattori, one of the leaders of the 19th-century group known as the Macchiaioli. To these works are contemporary works of other Italian Macchiaioli and post-Macchiaioli painters.[1]
Between the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century the collection was enriched with the acquisition of archaeological findings and a numismatic collection which was donated by Enrico Chiellini in 1893. Upon Fattori's death, in 1908, the museum purchased 250 drawings and 150 etchings from his autorship.[3]
The new and larger museum headquarters in Piazza Guerrazzi was inaugurated in 1896. At the beginning of the 1930s, the museum was named after Giovanni Fattori.
During World War II, the museum's collection was moved out of the city. One large major work (The Exiles of Siena) by Enrico Pollastrini was however destroyed by the Allied bombardment. At the end of the conflict, part of its collection was placed on the second floor of Villa Fabbricotti and the rest was located in the various municipal offices and warehouses. At the same time the collection was enriched with works by Italian artists such as Plinio Nomellini, Guglielmo Micheli, Serafino De Tivoli, Oscar Ghiglia, and Ulvi Liegi. It was also purchases a cartoon attributed to Amedeo Modigliani.[4][5]
In 1994 the museum, consisting partially of the collection, was moved to Villa Mimbelli, inaugurated in 1994 by the President of the Republic Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.
Collections
The ground and first floors of the museum are adorned with decorations, furnishings and draperies of the 18th century style with frescoes by Annibale Gatti.[6]
E. Spalletti, S. Bietoletti (coordinators), La Pittura a Livorno tra le due guerre. Nella raccolta della fondazione Cassa di Risparmi, Livorno, Sillabe, 2006 (Italian)