Term applied informally in 1873 by Telemaco Signorini (see Signorini) to describe a new approach to teaching and to landscape painting that was adopted by the brothers Károly Markó the younger and András Markó (see MARKÓ, (2) and (3)) and imparted to a group of Italian landscape painters sketching en plein air in the 1850s and 1860s. Their work is characterized by a tendency to depict identifiable, usually picturesque, locales in the Tuscan campagna, while focusing on specific peculiarities and everyday aspects. The name ‘Staggia’ is derived from a village in the hilly region near Siena, where Károly Markó first painted in 1853 and was then joined in about 1854–5 by other painters from Florence. The group consisted of the two brothers, who were the sons and assistants of Károly Markó the elder (see MARKÓ, (1)), who from about 1846 ran the only school for landscape painters in Florence; his pupils Serafino De Tivoli (1826–92) and Lorenzo Gelati (1824–93); the painter CARLO ADEMOLLO, known for his patriotic subject-matter; and two artists from Naples: Alessandro La Volpe (1820–93), a landscape painter, and Saverio Altamura (1826–97), a painter of historical subjects set in luminous landscapes. As with András Markó’s Landscape under a Storm (c. 1855; Florence, Pitti), scenes were romanticized in the manner of the much-admired Alexandre Calame and rendered in a finely ‘finished’ conventional mode that appealed to public taste. However, the only pictorial evidence of the group’s painting activities at Staggia is five entries in the catalogues of the Esposizione della Società Promotrice di Belle Arti, held in Florence in 1854 (Castle of Staggia and Motif Taken in Staggia; see 1854 cat.) and 1855 (Motif near Staggia, Village from Life at Staggia and Study from Life near Staggia; see 1855 cat.), which refer to motifs by Károly Markó the younger, De Tivoli and Gelati. From 1856 De Tivoli and Altamura became strongly influenced by the Barbizon school, while Staggia remained a favourite subject for Károly Markó the younger until at least 1863. He and some of his followers, including Emilio Donnini ( fl 1855–61) and Curio Nuti, continued to paint views of Elba and the Tuscan campagna and coast in a romanticized manner (e.g. Donnini’s Beach at Rio, 1861; Florence, Pitti). The school is significant for having been one of the earliest instances in Tuscany of a group of artists painting together from nature, a fact that greatly influenced the practices of the MACCHIAIOLI. Moreover, it stimulated an exchange of ideas between artists of the Neapolitan school and their Tuscan colleagues, which was a significant step in the development of landscape painting in Italy in the second half of the 19th century.

• Scuola di Staggia
  • Ademollo, Carlo
  • Italy, §III, 6: Neo-classical to early modernist painting, c 1750–c 1900
  • Macchiaioli