Return of the Cavalry

Return of the Cavalry, painted in 1888 and held in the Pinacoteca Metropolitana di Bari, depicts mounted soldiers returning from patrol or campaign — a subject that allows Fattori to depict horses and men in movement without the specific violence of battle. By the late 1880s his military subjects had largely shifted from commemorating specific Risorgimento engagements to depicting the ongoing life of the Italian army as an institution. These return and patrol scenes show soldiers as professional men in a working organisation, subordinating patriotic narrative to plain observation. The Bari pinacoteca is an unusual home for a Fattori, most of whose major works are concentrated in Florence and Livorno.

Fattori's late equestrian handling is broad and summary — horses and riders are described in confident, flowing strokes that convey movement without detailed anatomy. The palette is warm and dusty, the landscape setting abbreviated to a simple horizontal ground plane. Compositional rhythm is established through the repeated forms of the horses.