Italian Field after the Battle of Magenta
by FATTORI, Giovanni, Oil on canvas, 232 x 384 cm
Battle of Magenta (June 4, 1859) was an engagement between France and Austria in the Franco-Piedmontese war during the second war of Italian independence (1859–61). The outcome was a narrow French victory. The scene of the fighting was Magenta, 19 km west of Milan, in Austrian-dominated northern Italy. It involved some 54.000 French troops under Napoleon III and 58.000 Austrian troops under General Franz Gyulai. The French victory, which came after a highly disorganized battle, cost 4.000 men killed and wounded and 600 missing; Austrian losses were 5.700 killed and wounded and more than 4.000 missing.