Landscape at Castiglioncello

In Giuseppe Abbati’s Landscape at Castiglioncello (1863), a coastal landscape is conveyed in a plain and straightforward depiction of natural shapes and volumes. In fact, unlike many other artists who fill their compositions with people and complex architectural structures, Abbati focuses on the interaction of the land, trees and vegetation, sky, and the far-away sea. In his picture, the landscape seems to be open and spacious and gives viewers an impression of the Tuscany around Castiglioncello. Thus, it is possible to speak about a composition built mainly on the horizontal planes of the land and sky. Moreover, Abbati uses rather simplified shapes and does not make the picture too detailed. Thus, the trees and vegetation in it are depicted not as the individual botanic objects but as masses of vegetation. At that, other elements of the picture such as buildings are subordinated to nature. It is also worth mentioning that Abbati does not pay much attention to the details in order to let viewers focus on light and atmosphere in his painting. This painting captures the style of the Macchiaioli, a collection of painters from nineteenth century Italy that centered on Florence and were noted for their interest in realistic painting based on the contrast of color and tone patches. Abbati was especially interested in painting outdoors and understanding the changes in natural light. In his Landscape at Castiglioncello, the lack of a story makes the landscape itself the object. The painting is thus an example of how a natural view could be made into an artistic subject through its simplicity and light tones.