Cavalry Patrol

By 1885, when Fattori painted this cavalry patrol scene, the immediate political fervour of the Risorgimento era had subsided and he was painting the Italian military as a professional and social institution rather than as an emblem of liberation. Cavalry subjects recurred throughout his career not only for patriotic reasons but because horses presented a formal challenge he found endlessly engaging — their weight, movement, and relationship to landscape. This canvas, held in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Genova, depicts soldiers on routine patrol rather than in combat, conveying the long, ordinary stretches of military service that war paintings rarely depicted. Fattori's mature technique, by this date fully assured, brings together the Macchiaioli principles of tonal boldness and direct observation without straining for effect.

Fattori's characteristic handling of horse anatomy is on full display here — he paints equine musculature and movement with an authority born of long study. The tonal range is compressed into a harmonious palette of warm grey-greens and dusty earth tones. Loose, confident brushwork describes the landscape setting without competing with the figures.