The meaning assigned to the word “precursors” should be understood in a broad sense.
It implies those artists whose span of life covers the golden age of Scapigliatura in the visual arts but who, in the sixties already, through frequentation and aesthetics concerns, participated of the revolutionary climate in full bloom in literature and music , Scapigliatura in the visual arts was late to start and at that point , however, they did not shared fully the Scapigliati concerns.
Only Faruffini has remained a “precursor” in the absolute meaning of the term, because his art career was voluntarily truncated by his suicide in 1869.
The real contribution of Filippo Carcano to Scapigliatura is limited to the sixties: soon he would move away from their goals , concentrating on a research of realism understood primarily as out of doors painting and pure transcription of visual phenomena.
From the seventies on, he shared some of the Scapigliati battles, remaining close to the group but solely as a friend and a colleague.
Giuseppe Bertini, tenured professor of painting at the Brera Academy from 1859 to 1898, was a rather liberal mentor to many of them; he encouraged his students to sketch from nature, reworking the final product in atelier light.
Many Scapigliati have known one another in his class as we can infer from the exhibited group portrait by Ernesto Fontana, a student of his: from left to right and from top to bottom one can recognize Luigi Petroli, a cousin of Ranzoni, Ranzoni, Fontana, the author of the painting, Cremona, Mose’ Bianchi, Antonio Barzaghi Cattaneo, Leonardo Cornienti and Pietro Michis.

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