Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico was a Greek-Italian artist and writer born in Volos, Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. His best-known works often feature Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins, trains, and illogical perspective. His imagery reflects his affinity for the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and of Friedrich Nietzsche, and for the mythology of his birthplace.
Paintings by Giorgio de Chirico
The Nostalgia of the Infinite (1912)
The Nostalgia of the Infinite (Italian: La nostalgia dell'infinito) is a painting by Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, dated of 1911, but most likely painted in 1912–13.
The subject of the painting is a large tower. The scene is struck by low, angular evening light. In the foreground below the tower are two small shadowy figures resembling those in future works by Salvador Dalí. This painting is the most famous example of the tower theme which appears in several of Chirico's works.
Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914)
Mystery and Melancholy of a Street is a 1914 oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico. It is held in a private collection.
The painting depicts a street which is framed by two long, white buildings with arcades. The shadows shown are sharp, as if lit by the Mediterranean sun, and they divide the painting into two parts: on the left, the façade of the building is completely lit; on the right, the building is plunged into shadow and it extends over the lower part of the painting. The ground of the street is yellow, while the sky is blue-green. They meet at the horizon, materialized in a small space visible between the two buildings, towards the upper third of the painting.
The Song of Love (1914)
The Song of Love (also known as Le chant d'amour or Love Song) is a 1914 painting by Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is one of the most famous works by Chirico and an early example of his pre-surrealist style, though it was painted ten years before the movement was "founded" by André Breton in 1924.
It depicts an outdoor architectural setting similar to other works by Chirico at this time. This time however, the main focus is a small wall on which is mounted a Greek sculpted head and a surgeon's glove. Below it is a green ball. On the horizon is the outline of a locomotive, an image that recurs several times during this period of Chirico's career and that has been interpreted as a symbol of de Chirico’s father, an engineer who was involved in the planning of railroad lines in Greece.
The Disquieting Muses (1916)
The Disquieting Muses (in Italian: Le Muse inquietanti, 1916, 1917 or 1918) is a painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. There are two versions of this painting, the original is in the Gianni Mattioli private collection, in Milan, and the other is at the Pinakothek der Moderne, in Munich.
The Disquieting Muses was painted during World War I, when De Chirico was in Ferrara. The Castello Estense, near which de Chirico lived, is in the background, rust-red and among industrial buildings. At the front are the two Muses, dressed in classical clothing. One is standing and the other sitting, and they are placed among various objects, including a red mask and staff, an allusion to Melpomene and Thalia, the Muses of tragedy and comedy. The statue on a pedestal in the background is Apollo, leader of the Muses.
The Great Tower (1921)
The Great Tower (Italian: La grande torre) is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, from 1921. It is held in the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow. The Russian Ministry of Culture acquired it in 1992 for the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, though the latter then transferred it to the Pushkin Museum in honour of its eightieth anniversary.
This painting is a variant of the larger-format composition The Nostalgia of the Infinite, from c. 1913. In it, as in many of his works, de Chirico introduces the viewer into a metaphysical world of imagery and symbols. The painting depicts a tall tower standing on a large sand dune, illuminated by the evening sun. Behind the tower there is a steppe landscape, with orange-brown dunes, small houses that look like barns, and sparse vegetation. In the foreground are two people, of small since, that seem insignificant in comparison to the tower. Above all this stretches a heavy and oppressive sky, the color of which smoothly changes from yellow-green at the horizon to dark blue above the top of the tower. The landscape in the painting is momentary, creating a sense of stopped time, characteristic of the works of the artist.
The Enigma of the Hour (1911)
The Enigma of the Hour is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. He created the work during his early period, in Florence, when he focused on metaphysical depictions of town squares and other urban environments. It is not clear whether it was created in 1910 or 1911.
The Enigma depicts an urban scene with the classical architecture and angular lighting that are Chirico's hallmarks. Several figures around the scene have vague features, to give the sense that they are absent. Above the scene is a large clock that reads five minutes to three. Luca Cottini referred to the clock as "...[suggesting] the paradox of an 'eternal present,' located on the edge of a-temporal revelation and moving temporality, and [enacting] the enigma of its nature." Peter G. Toohey has asserted the figure in white represents Odysseus.
The Child's Brain (1914)
The Child's Brain (Italian: Il cervello del bambino) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico. It was completed in 1914 in Italy and is an example of the metaphysical art style. The painting measures 80 by 65 centimeters and is now housed at Moderna Museet, Stockholm. The subject of The Child's Brain is a nude young man, seen from the waist up, who is standing behind a table with his eyes closed.
The painting depicts a nude young man with a mix of both masculine and feminine features (the feminine being especially prominent in the lack of body hair or defined musculature, the long eyelashes and the finely groomed eyebrows) standing behind a table which blocks our view of him below the waist. On the table is a yellow book with a red bookmark, that has been interpreted as an allegorical representation of male/female intercourse. The man's right arm is hidden from view by a Greek column, connecting this painting to the art of the ancient Greeks, a common theme among de Chirico's work. The man himself is likely a younger version of the figure of Dionysos who appears in later works by de Chirico, such as The Phantom.
Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure) (1914)
Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure) (Italian: La stazione di Montparnasse) is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, from 1914. It is held at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.
Many of de Chirico's works were inspired by the introspective feelings evoked by travel. He was born in Greece to Italian parents. This work was painted during a period when he lived in Paris.
The Double Dream of Spring (1915)
The Double Dream of Spring (also known as Doppio Sogno di Primavera, 1915) is a painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is held at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.
The painting depicts apparently related but separate scenes. The scene on the left shows a statue of a man in a frock-coat from behind. The statue appears to be staring contemplatively into an open sky. The two scenes are separated in the middle by a wooden beam, perhaps part of an easel. Near the base of the beam is a blueprint drawing of an interior, in which large arches and a window open onto a landscape including the stick-like figures of two men meeting, and distant mountains. The scene on the right appears to be looking down on the same landscape from a slightly different angle. Above the landscape is the shape of the head of a tailor's dummy.
The Melancholy of Departure (1916)
The Melancholy of Departure (Italian: Melanconia della partenza) is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, from 1916. This painting was created after Chirico returned to Italy from Paris to join the Italian Army in World War I. It is held at the Tate Modern, in London.
During this time Chirico was moving away from the bright open scenes of his previous work. He was now focusing on more abstract combinations of objects and indoor settings, and seeking to paint the hidden meanings behind the surface of things. The themes of travel and departure are present in much of Chirico's canon, as seen in his many paintings of trains and railways stations.
The Soothsayer's Recompense (1913)
The Soothsayer's Recompense is a 1913 painting by Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of the permanent collection. It was accessioned in 1950 as one of the thousand items donated to the institution by Walter and Louise Arensberg. The piece was created in France, through a process of "squaring-up" in which Chirico drew a version of the piece divided into nine squares, and subsequently used this draft to quickly create the fleshed-out painting.
The piece depicts an empty city square, a recurring motif in works by Chirico. It also features a locomotive in the background, another recurring motif also found in The Transformed Dream and Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure).
Ariadne (Giorgio de Chirico) (1913)
Ariadne is an oil and graphite on canvas 1913 painting by Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico, from 1913. It is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
The painting depicts the mythical figure Ariadne as she lies sleeping in an empty public square; this is in reference to the myth that birthed the character, in which Ariadne is abandoned on Naxos by her lover Theseus. According to sources provided by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this reflects Chirico's personal feelings of isolation after moving to Paris in 1911.