There’s a painting by Giovanni Fattori called In Vedetta that for me encapsulates the Mediterranean summer. It’s probably not what you’d expect: no white beaches dotted with parasols, no fields covered in golden crops, no shady terraces with grape covered pergolas. It’s quite an unusual picture, but whenever I see it I’m immediately overwhelmed by the scorching heat that it radiates.

These aren’t the early days of summer, when the warmth and blue skies are still fresh, and having the windows open day and night is still a novelty. This is the summer of the screeching cicadas, the smell of hot dust, my mouth dry with thirst, my sight almost blinded by the dazzling light which bleaches all colours. When I look at In Vedetta, I feel the fatigue created by the relentless heat.

In Vedetta (On Patrol), also known as Il Muro Bianco (The White Wall), was painted by Giovanni Fattori between 1868 and 1870. In Vedetta shows a group of three soldiers out on patrol during the fierce days of summer. Fattori uses a limited palette of blues, greys, and ochres, combined with a harsh geometry of scorched earth, horizon, sky and wall to transmit the bleak sparseness of the Maremma Toscana landscape into which the soldiers have been sent.

The wall against which the first soldier and his horse are positioned reminds me of the white washed walls of my childhood in Libya. These are walls which intensify the heat by reflecting and radiating it. The road on which the horses are standing is also the road of my childhood, dry and dusty, and scattered with a few scrubby plants and small heaps of stones.

Although the painting is quite small (37 by 57 cm), it manages to convey a sense of infinity. I always have the feeling that I want to walk into it and peep around the wall to see what’s on the other side … a little white village, the sea?

To find out more about Giovanni Fattori click HERE