The work, displayed in 1868, was praised by critics and purchased by the Ministry of Public Education. They were exhibited until 1912 and are now part of the Gallery of Modern Art in Palazzo Pitti.
Born in Naples as the son of Vincenzo Romano, an interior painter, Giuseppe Abbati was an important 19th-century painter. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Venice and later joined the Macchiaioli group in Florence, abandoning academic rigour. He was a central figure in the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian painters who were the precursors to Impressionism. Although he had a tragically short life, his name stands among those who laid the foundation of modern Italian art.
Abbati stood against the traditional academy rules by adapting the ‘macchia’ (spot/patch) technique. This technique uses bold colors and strong light-dark contrasts, known as chiaroscuro. It builds structure without relying on the rigid lines taught in traditional art schools. He became a master of ‘threshold’ paintings, which depict the luminous light seen from an interior space looking outside. He provides an exceptional depiction of the dramatic effect of light on architectural structures. His paintings embody a peaceful, balanced, and serene atmosphere, where you can almost feel the stillness of the space, a quality often referred to as ‘geometrical science’ by artists.
Abbati’s Oration (The prayer) held a pivotal space in his career and the development of the Macchiaioli movement. The painting depicts Teresa Fabbrini, wife of Diego Martelli, an art critic and supporter of the Macchiaioli group. This young woman is enlightened with soft light flowing through a window, highlighting the woman as the focal point of the painting. We can see the intense effect of chiaroscuro in the drapes of the woman’s dress, almost making the dress real and touchable. The details that we see vanish as our eyes move into the shadows of the background. Giuseppe gifted this painting to Teresa as an act of friendship.
Oration is a painting not of faith, but of the solitude of consciousness drifting in a dimly lit room. In the 19th century, the Italian Macchiaioli artists were rebelling against the tired, posed history paintings of the academies, chasing instead the raw sensation of light. Abbati, one of their brightest stars, took this "spotlight" philosophy and weaponized it for emotional warfare. An austere young woman holds a small book, perhaps a prayer, perhaps just a distraction. The grand idea is that Abbati removes the divine: this is not a saint in ecstasy by Caravaggio. Her heavy dress is rendered with dazzling patches of light and dark (macchie), giving it a tangible, almost sculptural weight against the encroaching gloom. The radical twist is what lurks behind her: a dark, bearded man watching something else entirely. Abbati uses him as a living shadow to measure the space, to make her solitude feel profound and dimensional. He is a ghost in the room, reinforcing the fact that no miracle is coming. There is no voice from heaven, no angel, just the quiet, heavy weight of a woman thinking. Abbati achieved here a haunting pre-modern sensibility, stripping away the theatrical and leaving only the quiet, melancholic ceremony of daily life.
