The Explosion of the caisson

Giovanni Fattori was the central figure of the Macchiaioli movement, Italian painters who from the 1850s developed a method of depicting light and form through bold patches of colour — a precursor to Impressionism that emerged independently in Tuscany. The Explosion of the Caisson, painted in 1879, depicts a military incident on the battlefield: the sudden destruction of an ammunition wagon, with horses and riders thrown into chaos. Fattori had documented the Risorgimento wars from direct observation, and his military subjects carried the authority of a witness as much as a painter. The work is held in Ca' Pesaro, Venice. By 1879 Fattori's battlefield scenes had moved from the broad panoramic vision of his 1860s work toward a more intense focus on the violence and contingency of combat, making this canvas one of his more dramatically charged military subjects.

Fattori uses the Macchiaioli technique of strong tonal contrast — abrupt transitions between light and dark — to convey the explosive shock of the subject. The composition is energetic and unstable, with fragmenting diagonal lines reinforcing the sense of destruction. Earth tones and smoke greys dominate, punctuated by the brighter tones of the stricken horses.