Italian literary and artistic movement active in Milan between c. 1860 and c. 1870. Its name was taken from the novel Scapigliatura (1862) by Cletto Arrighi (pseudonym of Carlo Righetti), which used the term scapigliato to describe young people of a restless, independent spirit, though not, in the novel, artists, and the word gained currency in literary and artistic circles. The artists associated with the movement included Tranquillo Cremona, Daniele Ranzoni and Giuseppe Grandi. The term scapigliatura has been extended to describe a painting technique of longer duration than the 1860s, from such forerunners as Giovanni Carnevali and Federico Faruffini to younger artists frequenting the same milieu centred round the Milanese taverns, such as Filippo Carcano, Eugenio Gignous and Luigi Conconi: it has also been applied to the sculpture of Paolo Troubetskoy and Medardo Rosso. Gli Scapigliati aimed both in their art and in their general behaviour to defy the complacent conformity of the rising bourgeois class, to whom they preferred the intellectual élite. Their painting was characterized by an atmospheric fusion of figure and background, emphasized by softened contours, open brushwork, impasto and interwoven colours (for illustration see RANZONI, DANIELE). The musicality of the colours exemplified their philosophy of the fusion of the arts. This was promoted by the novelist and critic Giuseppe Rovani (1818–74) and was influenced by contemporary French literature. The Romanticism of their early history paintings persisted in their interpretation of contemporary life, landscape and their favoured genre of portraits, mostly of nobility or literary figures. Their work created a prelude to the decadent Symbolism of the 1890s. Gli Scapigliati also produced lampoons and satirical sketches. Although such key figures in the movement as Faruffini, Cremona and Ranzoni died prematurely, most of the surviving artists continued to work in the scapigliatura manner, which influenced such divisionist painters as Giovanni Segantini and Gaetano Previati.

• Scapigliati, Gli
  • Italy, §III, 6: Neo-classical to early modernist painting, c 1750–c 1900
  • Milan, §II, 4: Art life and organization, after 1714
  • Previati, Gaetano, §2: Gli Scapigliati and first Divisionist works
  • members
    • Italy, §IV, 5: Neo-classical to early modernist sculpture, c 1750–c 1900
    • Boito, Camillo
      • Boito, Camillo, §1: Training and architectural career
    • Casnedi, Raffaele
      • Casnedi, Raffaele
    • Cremona, Tranquillo
      • Cremona, Tranquillo, §1: Life and work
    • Dossi, Carlo
      • Dossi, Carlo
    • Grandi, Giuseppe
      • Grandi, Giuseppe
    • Grubicy (De Dragon), Vittore
      • Grubicy, Vittore
    • Ranzoni, Daniele
      • Ranzoni, Daniele, §1: Life and work