Garibaldi in Palermo

Garibaldi in Palermo, painted around 1860, depicts one of the most celebrated episodes of the Risorgimento: Giuseppe Garibaldi's triumphal entry into Palermo in May 1860 following the Expedition of the Thousand, which conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and brought it into the unified Italian state. Garibaldi was the supreme popular hero of the independence movement, and his entry into Palermo was received throughout Europe as one of the great political events of the century. Fattori, deeply committed to the Risorgimento cause, painted this subject at the moment of its occurrence — a painter at the intersection of political engagement and pictorial witness.

The subject demands a composition that conveys both the presence of the iconic figure and the mass popular reception surrounding him. Fattori uses a crowd composition that radiates outward from Garibaldi's position, the surrounding figures creating a visual vortex of acclamation. The palette is warm and sun-drenched, appropriate to a Sicilian summer scene.