February 2nd, 2012 , 10:40 pm
I wanted to collect in one place some of the “metaphysical” landscapes of Giorgio de Chirico, painted in the 10s and 20s of the last century, and the surreal landscapes of Salvador Dali, created fifteen to twenty years later. It is interesting to see how de Chirico's ideas were reflected in Dali's work. Moreover, Dali in Russia is known to everyone, and de Chirico is known to relatively few.
Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico (1888 - 1978) became famous for his works in the style of the so-called "metaphysical painting". The main method of metaphysics was the contrast between a realistically accurately depicted object and the strange atmosphere in which it was placed, which created an surreal effect. The ancestor of this direction was de Chirico himself, later a small group of like-minded artists formed. In the early 1920s, the metaphysical movement essentially disappeared from the scene.
I’ll make a reservation right away that my comments are not at all a claim to an art history analysis, but only an attempt to express my impressions, nothing more.
Here is one of de Chirico's first known works:
Giorgio de Chirico. Riddle of Arrival and Afternoon, 1912
The landscape is emphatically geometric, the sky is neatly painted over with even horizontal strokes, exaggeratedly straight lines of shadows and a checkerboard cage grotesquely emphasize following the laws of perspective - all this gives the landscape a bewitching lifelessness and distances, fences it off from living reality. The figures of two people immersed in themselves create the effect of a dream.
Giorgio de Chirico. The Melancholy of a Beautiful Day, 1913
An exaggerated perspective, the sky painted over with even strokes. Here we see two elements present in many of de Chirico's landscapes: the colonnade and the statue. We also note that the elements of the landscape (building, man, statue) are placed on an almost ideal geometric plane. Because of this, it seems that the landscape is disintegrating into separate artifacts - an association arises not with reality, but with the exposition of sculptures in the exhibition hall.
Giorgio de Chirico. Piazza d'Italia, 1914, And Piazza d'Italia (Autumn melancholy), 1914
And again - an exaggerated perspective, a flat sky, colonnades, statues, an ideal landscape plane. We note two more elements that are repeated in the paintings of de Chirico - the rotunda and fluttering flags (both are present, for example, in the 1912 painting above).
To further emphasize the flat surface, de Chirico often places objects on what appears to be a plank platform, or simply traces the plane itself:
Giorgio de Chirico. Restless Muses, 1916, And Great Metaphysician, 1917
Salvador Dali first appeared in Paris in 1926 and apparently saw the work of de Chirico around the same time. Soon, Dali changes his artistic style: he stops exercising in the spirit of cubism and begins to paint landscapes that are compositionally reminiscent of de Chirico's paintings:
Salvador Dali. Phantasmagoria, 1929
An endless lined plane, on which columns, statues and strange objects are placed - we saw all this in de Chirico.
Salvador Dali. Fountain, 1930
Salvador Dali. Paranoid Horse Woman, 1930
In the last picture, by the way, we see direct references to de Chirico: a red tower in the background at the top left and the base of a giant red column. Here's what it looks like for de Chirico:
Giorgio de Chirico. Red Tower, 1913, And Philosopher's Conquest, 1914
Combining de Chirico's much-loved image of the red tower/chimney and the hooligan cannon with two cannonballs from The Conquest of the Philosopher, Dali draws the following composition:
Salvador Dali. Red anthropomorphic tower, 1930
Not forgotten, and a flag typical for de Chirico at the top of ... hm-hm ... buildings. In general, Dali liked to joke - this is well known.
Here is another example of de Chirico and Dali's recurring themes (the theme is archeology, the image is a hybrid of human figures and buildings):
De Chirico, Archaeologists, 1927, And Dali, Archaeological Echo of "Angelus" by Millais, 1935
Another example of the overlap between the artistic images of de Chirico and Dali:
Giorgio de Chirico. Soothsayer's Reward, 1913, And Mystery and melancholy of the street, 1913
Salvador Dali. Morphological echo, c.1936
The arch on the right side of the picture evokes associations with the arch from the "Fortune Teller's Reward", and the girl with the hoop turned into a girl with a skipping rope - an image that Dali has on several canvases (following de Chirico, Dali acquired the habit of repeating his favorite image in different paintings). In Morphological Echo, Dali used one of his favorite tricks: the same object is presented in different guises (the silhouette of a bell in the arch opening almost exactly repeats the silhouette of a girl with a skipping rope). We see the same technique in one of Dali's most famous paintings:
Salvador Dali. Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 1937
Let's pay attention to the platform with a chess cage on the right side of the picture - there is a direct association with de Chirico's painting of 1912, given at the very beginning of this article.
And here is just a landscape in the spirit of de Chirico, which Dali began to paint in 1935 - but did not finish:
* * *
Beginning in 1920, Giorgio de Chirico gradually moved away from the “metaphysical” landscape in its purest form, the compositions of his paintings became more complex, the style became more classical:
Giorgio de Chirico. Roman Square (Mercury and Metaphysics), 1920
Giorgio de Chirico. Departure of the Argonauts, 1921
Giorgio de Chirico. Strange Travelers (Romanesque landscape), 1922
Giorgio de Chirico. Shore of Thessaly, 1926
In the paintings "Roman Square", "Roman Landscape" and "Coast of Thessaly" we see new (compared to the paintings of the 10s) repetitive elements: statues and people on the roofs.
Beginning in the late 1920s, de Chirico painted mostly neo-baroque landscapes. However, until a very old age, he liked from time to time to create copies of the works of his early period.
De Chirico Giorgio De Chirico Giorgio
(De Chirico) (1888-1978), Italian painter. Head of the "metaphysical school" in painting. In urban landscapes, he conveyed a feeling of the disturbing stillness of the world, its alienation from man (“Disturbing Muses”, 1917).
DE CHIRICO GiorgioDE CHIRICO (De Chirico) Giorgio (July 10, 1888, Volos, Greece - November 19, 1978, Rome), Italian painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer. Head of the "Metaphysical School" (cm. METAPHYSICAL PAINTING)» in painting.
First Italian period (1910 - July 1911)
Born in the city of Volos, located in the Greek province of Thessaly, where his father, an engineer by profession, was sent from Italy to build the first railways. Giorgio and his younger brother Andrea (who later became a famous writer and musician, known under the pseudonym Andre Savigno) grew up in an atmosphere of an intelligent Italian family that belonged to an ancient family. De Chirico graduated from the Greek Lyceum in Volos, and then from the Polytechnic Institute in Athens, took lessons in Volos from the local painter Mavrodis. In 1905, after the death of his father, he moved to Germany with his mother and brother, choosing Munich for further education. De Chirico called this city "New Athens". Classes at the Academy of Arts, acquaintance with the collections of museums enriched the artist. Especially his attention was attracted by the works of the German symbolists - Arnold Böcklin (cm. Becklin Arnold) and Max Klinger (cm. Klinger Max). Under the influence of their "timeless" mythology and memories of Greece, the canvas "Battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths" (1909, private collection) was painted. Having received a good humanitarian education, De Chirico knew Greek philosophy and literature, was fond of German philosophy, translated Schopenhauer and Nietzsche into Italian, they were the first to explain to him the "nature of creative genius." In an atmosphere of enthusiasm for German culture of the 19th century. and the "metaphysics" of De Chirico was born.
The category l "enigma ("mystery"), which underlies the metaphysical painting of the artist, meant (as De Chirico himself wrote in the book Memories of My Life, 1945) a personal memory, "an unexpected and exciting refinement of details that excite the imagination that are stored in sensations, nostalgia for childhood". In the articles "Metaphysical Aesthetics" (1918), "Metaphysical Painting" (1919), the philosophical essay "The Mechanism of Thinking" he explained the program of metaphysical painting, the creative process of "metaphysics" - the creator of the "new psychology of things" On his self-portrait (1911, New York, Museum of Modern Art), compositionally reminiscent of the self-portrait of A. Becklin, the young artist made the inscriptions “What would I love if it were not for a riddle?” These words became programmatic for his subsequent work. in the atmosphere of the Italian and German cultural traditions of the early 20th century, sharing the ideas of B. Croce about the convergence of philosophy and art, about intuition as a means of comprehending the essence of art, he always appreciated the aesthetic program in the work of contemporary masters, separated such art from "techniques", what, for example, considered impressionism or pointillism.
In 1910, De Chirico moved with his mother and brother to Florence, where the first metaphysical canvases were painted: "The Riddle of the Oracle" (1910, private collection), "The Riddle of the Autumn Noon" (1910, New York, Museum of Modern Art). Florence became the first "metaphysical" city of De Chirico, its squares and monuments formed the outline of these works. Turin, which De Chirico visited in July 1911, on his way to France, became an equally poetic "memory city" in his paintings. He called it the "Square City", which enchanted him with medieval castles and palaces, regular squares, memories of F. Nietzsche, who wrote "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" here in 1888.
Parisian period (July 1911-15)
With his mother and brother in July 1911 De Chirico arrived in Paris. Here the brothers de Chirico gained fame and here for the first time the talent of each was fully revealed. In the studio on the banks of the Seine, the most significant works of the "metaphysical" period were created: Gare Montparnasse (1914, New York, Museum of Modern Art), Song of Love (1914, private collection), Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire (1914, Paris , Museum of Modern Art), "The Mystery and Melancholy of the Street" (1914, New York, Museum of Modern Art), "The Conquest of the Philosopher" (1914, Chicago, Art Institute). Guillaume Apollinaire (cm. Apollinaire Guillaume) one of the first to appreciate the talent of De Chirico, who managed to avoid the influence of the bright masters who worked in Paris during these years, organized his first exhibition in the studio on the street. Notre Dame de Champs in October 1913. A. Breton (cm. Breton Andre) introduced De Chirico to P. Guillaume, whose collection included paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Modigliani.
In Paris, the interest of both De Chirico brothers in the art of theater was born. Apollinaire wrote about the music of Andre Savigno, his ballet-pantomime The Death of Niobe, performed by the Ballets Russes, in the spirit of futuristic experiments. As some symbols of Florence, Milan, Turin, as stone visions of the past, architectural and sculptural monuments appear in the canvases of the Parisian period: “The Song of Love” (1913, private collection) and “Nostalgia for Infinity” (1913, New York, Museum of Modern Art) . These are symbols of a journey of memory into the world of eternal values, the world of tradition, which the artist himself called "archaeological windows". The graceful figure of a girl rolling a hoop in the canvas "Nostalgia for Infinity" sounds like a contrast to the "eternal" - the deserted street of the city in its museum, Renaissance frame. In the “Song of Love” canvas, the intense expression of juxtaposed objects - a cast of the statue of the God of love Apollo and a red rubber glove, a green ball, a corner of the palazzo arcade, a locomotive moving behind a brick wall - gives rise to a special metaphysical harmony of things - signs, bearers of a certain history and tradition of the past and new time.
Second Italian period: Ferrara (1915-1919) Rome (1919-1924)
In the summer of 1915, De Chirico moved to Ferrara in connection with Italy's entry into the First World War in May of that year. The brothers were called to the front. De Chirico called the city "the most metaphysical", "the city of dreams", since here his commonwealth was born with C. Carra, J. Morandi, F. De Pisis, who became his like-minded people in the embodiment of the ideas of metaphysical painting. Heroes of paintings 1915-18. (“Troubadour”, 1917, private collection; “Hector and Andromache”, ca. 1918, private collection) become some kind of phantom mannequins without facial features. “Quotes” from different eras are correlated in the works of the Ferrara period (“Large Metaphysical Interior”, 1917, private collection; from the series “Metaphysical Interiors”, 1916-1919) with modernity, acquiring a nostalgic tone, a touch of travesty, as the world is seen by “metaphysicians as "an endless museum of oddities". The mysterious diversity of associations is also engendered by objects in the Evangelical Still Life series (1916-19), the sacred symbolism of which is associated with the Christian understanding of virtue and morality. The works of the Ferrara period bear the imprint of a heightened attitude than the more poetic works written in Paris.
The first joint exhibition of the “metaphysicians” took place in May 1918 at the Epoch Gallery in Rome, where De Chirico soon moved from Ferrara. they formed a group of painters and critics, which, in addition to the brothers De Chirico, included C. Carra, A. Soffici, M. Broglio, and others. In February 1919, the artist's first solo exhibition in Italy was held in the gallery of the famous photographer A. J. Bragagli. The Roman period coincided with the years of the "Black Twenty" - the time of the strengthening of fascism in post-war Italy. In this tragic era for Italy, De Chirico remained committed to his main theme - history, culture, the story of creativity. He chooses the position of "hermeticism": isolation from the ideological postulates prevailing in society. He finds support for his thoughts in the timeless classics. This is how the “neoclassicism” of De Chirico is born. In his new aesthetic program, there was nothing in common with the "neoclassicism" of the masters of the "Novecento" group, their pompous and monumental style, but poetic and lyrical intonation lived, there was a search for a living connection between classics and modernity. The search for new poetics was accompanied by the search for new visual means. In the article "Return to the Craft" (1919), published in "Valori plastici", he wrote about the need to return to tradition, to the classical manner of painting by the old masters. The slogan "pictur classicus" should become the leitmotif of his work and, as he believes, the goal of every true artist. In the 1920s De Chirico creates still lifes ("Sacred Fish", 1919, New York, Museum of Modern Art), paints portraits ("Composer Alfredo Casella", 1924, private collection), articles about his favorite masters - A. Becklin (cm. Becklin Arnold), Rafaele (cm. RAFAEL SANTI), G. Courbet (cm. Courbet Gustave), Impressionists, copies the paintings of old masters in the museums of Rome. A series of self-portraits from the 1920s sounds like a dialogue with Titian, Raphael, Ingres, A. del Sarto (“Self-Portrait with Mother”. 1919. USA, E. James Foundation; “Self-Portrait with Brother”, 1924, private collection).
From the 1920s, De Chirico constantly took part in the design of opera performances (Orpheus by G. Monteverdi; Iphigenia by I. Pizzetti; The Puritani by V. Bellini, etc.), introducing the poetic metaphor of "metaphysical painting" into scenography. One of the most integral series of paintings of this period was the cycle "Roman Villas" (1920s), whose canvases are inhabited by images of ladies and knights, evoking the literary images of T. Tasso (cm. TASSO Torquato) and L. Ariosto (cm. ARIOSTO Ludovico), painting by S. Martini, fabulously mysterious landscapes of the Ferrara masters. As a recollection of ancient culture, of childhood, the canvases Departure of the Argonauts (c. 1921, private collection) and Orestes and Electra (1922-1923, private collection) sound, the manner of execution of which makes one recall the works of Renaissance masters.
Second Parisian period (1925-29)
In connection with the exhibition scheduled for March 1925 at the Leon Rosenblum Gallery, De Chirico leaves for Paris. He continues to create canvases in the "neoclassical" style, enriching them with new impressions. In the canvases of the cycles "Horses by the Sea", "Gladiators", "Archaeologists", "Furniture in the Valley", scenes from the history of Ulysses, Achilles, Hippolytus - thoughts are expressed about ancient ancient culture and modernity, which are intertwined in a kind of timeless collage of dreams. His Amazons, gladiators, heroes of myths, "odysseys of things" from the series "Furniture in the Valley", horses on the sea coast - figuratively as if expressing the thought of De Chirico - the romantic and dreamer from his novel "Ebdomeros" (1929, written in French) about that "it's better to live a fantasy."
Even during the years of the first stay in Paris, De Chirico became close to a group of surrealists (cm. SURREALISM), headed by A. Breton (cm. Breton Andre) by participating in their exhibitions. His views influenced the surrealists, but in 1928 the relationship ended in a break and he was jokingly "excommunicated" from surrealism.
In Paris, De Chirico first turned to the fresco technique, painting "Horses on the Seashore" on the facade of a small pavilion with a pool in the park of L. Rosenberg's house. In 1933, in Italy, he took part in the creation of a cycle of fresco decorations for the exhibition pavilion for the Milan Triennale on the theme "Culture of Italy in its most significant manifestations." A winged white Pegasus soared in a fresco against the backdrop of the Colosseum and St. Peter's Cathedral, and poets and artists indulged in inspiration with craftsmanship. Unfortunately, the painting was destroyed, as its lyrical figurative language did not correspond to the ideological guidelines of the cultural program.
Back in Italy (1930-1978)
Period 1935-38 De Chirico is in America at the invitation of the collector J. Barnes, who organized a series of his exhibitions. The canvas with the ironic caption “And I was in New York” depicting ancient places against the backdrop of skyscrapers is evidence of new experiences, the discovery of a new culture. He spends the period 1940-41 in Milan, creating works whose themes were inspired by the events of the war (lithographs for the "Apocalypse"), full of irony and fantasy. In Milan, De Chirico first turned to sculpture, in which he expressed the sensations of a disturbing time (Pieta, bronze). Since 1944 - he settled permanently in Rome, where the book "Memories of my life" was completed - reflections on the artist's destiny. In his later work, he remained true to his searches of the 1910s and 1930s. Jokingly, he liked to say that his right hand was "realistic" and his left hand was "metaphysical", since both aesthetic programs were equally important to him, who never felt the exhaustion of his subject matter. A short fascination with baroque art in the 1940s and 50s. (“Portrait in a 17th century costume”, 1959, private collection) was a “mystery of remembrance”, an opportunity to immerse yourself in a new layer of classical art. His later "metaphysical" works (the "Mysterious Baths" series, 1950-60s) were a pastiche on an old theme, which has already become a classic, with which this "knight of metaphysics" entered art. In the 1950s and 70s, he did a lot of illustrating books, worked for the theaters of La Scala in Milan, the Rome National Opera. London Covent Garden, theater in Athens.
encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .
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Chirico, Giorgio de- Chirico, Giorgio de ... Wikipedia
Chirico, Giorgio
Chirico Giorgio de- Giorgio de Chirico, 1936. Photograph by Carl van Vechten Giorgio de Chirico (Italian Giorgio de Chirico, July 10, 1888, Volos, Greece November 20, 1978, Rome) is an Italian artist close to surrealism. Contents ... Wikipedia
CHIRICO Giorgio- CHIRICO J., see De Chirico Giorgio (see DE CHIRICO Giorgio) ... encyclopedic Dictionary
CHIRICO Giorgio- (Chirico, Giorgio de) (1888 1978), Italian artist and art theorist, considered one of the forerunners of surrealism in modern painting. Giorgio de Chirico was born in the Greek city of Volos on July 10, 1888. He studied at the Higher Art ... ... Collier Encyclopedia
De Chirico, Giorgio- Giorgio de Chirico, 1936. Photograph by Carl van Vechten Giorgio de Chirico (Italian Giorgio de Chirico, July 10, 1888, Volos, Greece November 20, 1978, Rome) is an Italian artist close to surrealism. Contents ... Wikipedia
DE CHIRICO Giorgio- DE CHIRICO (De Chirico) Giorgio (1888 1978) Italian painter. Head of the metaphysical school in painting. In the urban landscapes of De Chirico, the impression of the disturbing stillness of the world, its alienation from man is expressed (Disturbing Muses, 1917) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Kiriko- Chirico, Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio de Giorgio de Chirico, 1936. Photograph by Carl van Vechten ... Wikipedia
Giorgio Chirico- Giorgio de Chirico, 1936. Photograph by Carl van Vechten Giorgio de Chirico (Italian Giorgio de Chirico, July 10, 1888, Volos, Greece November 20, 1978, Rome) is an Italian artist close to surrealism. Contents ... Wikipedia
The founder of surrealism, by right, is considered to be Salvador, our great, Dali, and many, with a passing mention of this artistic movement, will instantly remember a couple of paintings by a picturesque Spaniard. However, experienced art historians, if they are also arrogant, will spit in your face with the name of the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico.
Long before the paintings officially called surr were created, he had already crossed the metaphysical line of the reality of the depicted. In the years when Dali was just getting acquainted with modern art, De Chirico had already painted a series of his most famous works: Nostalgia for Infinity (1911), Melancholy and the Mystery of the Street (1914), Poet's Nostalgia (1914), Metaphysical interior" (1917). Then, having no analogues of description, his paintings would be called “metaphysical painting”, but now we clearly understand that these were the first embryos of surrealism - unreal, logical, absurd and mysterious.
"Turin Spring"
What attracts us in his paintings, what caught the eye of the artists of the twentieth century, who found something surprisingly attractive in his works? After all, Picasso admired his early paintings, under his influence such geniuses as Magritte, Tanguy and Dali were born.
Avant-garde does not lend itself to rational analysis, description and understanding in general. This is a space that is on the verge - in these paintings there are only a small number of elements that bring the overall composition out of a state of static and rest. De Chirico very often plays with shadows and perspective, deliberately breaking it in certain places, which only gives us a feeling of unreality of what is happening somewhere on a subconscious level. For example, in the painting “Melancholy and the Mystery of the Street”, the silhouette of a running girl is deliberately distorted, and therefore it looks more like some kind of leaving and blurring shadow. It is not clear in this case what it is - an object or a shadow reflected from it. It is not clear then the direction of this shadow, because the light is directed in the other direction. The first visual tricks and riddles, to which both Magritte and Dali would later come, began in such seemingly elusive little things in de Chirico's paintings.
"Melancholy and the Mystery of the Street"
“If I had died at 31, like Seurat, or at 39, like Apollinaire, I would today be considered one of the main painters of the century. You know what those stupid critics would say?! That the greatest surrealist artist is not Dali, not Magritte, not Delvaux, but me, Chirico!”
This whole phrase completely defines the mood of our story. Yes, he was great, he created a revolution in painting, but in all this, the main word was “was”. No matter how it sounds, but de Chirico died too late. The peak of his work falls on the second decade of the twentieth century, when in 1911 he moved from his native Volos to Paris. Here, truly, the real de Chirico is born - uncompromising, revolutionary, breaking the logic in the head of everyone who dared to look at his paintings.
"Two Masks"
"Great metaphysician"
"Melancholy of Departure"
"The Philosopher's Conquest"
But, after the First World War, something clicked in his mind, a protracted crisis and some kind of total depression ensued. And if Picasso came out of their suicidal moods solemnly and in the "blue period", then de Chirico did not succeed in anything. At first, he simply copied his own paintings, pushing them around like a stale sausage on the shelves that no one wanted to taste, passing off each of them as genuine. And then something completely irreparable happened - he finally ran out of steam and began to promote academism as the only true religion, simultaneously pouring mud on modern art, the founder of which was literally a couple of decades ago. Sad, sad and very tough, but such is life.
Somehow, already in the 60s, Boris Messerer, at that time a theater decorator of the USSR, visited Giorgio de Chirico in Rome. He so desired to see that very "metaphysical" that he was simply killed by what he saw. From Messerer's memoirs of the meeting:
“When we entered the apartment, we were shocked by the luxury of the furnishings. On the walls there are huge paintings in gold frames, which depict some horses and naked women on these horses, rushing somewhere. Plots of baroque content, which have nothing to do with metaphysical painting. A completely different Kiriko - salon, luxurious, but absolutely no avant-garde ideas.
De Chirico's wife was the translator at this meeting, she was asked about where the "those" paintings of Giorgio were, but she stubbornly pointed her fingers at academic boredom, saying that he was the true artist.
“Suddenly Signor de Chirico retires somewhere and suddenly brings out first one picture - a small metaphysical composition, then a second, third, fourth and puts them just like that, on the floor in the hallway. He understood what it was about! We are shocked, these are the pictures that we wanted to see! His wife was very unhappy with the whole situation. And then it turned out that she was friends with Furtseva, our Minister of Culture of that time, and they spoke the same language, the language of socialist realism. They had an ideological friendship, and Madame did not want to know any avant-garde.
"Still life with silverware"
Giorgio de Chirico lived for 90 years and in old age, in an embrace with his social. realistic dry wife, with his banal classicist paintings in gold pompous frames, went to another world. Whether he regretted having renounced his discovery, or whether he was satisfied with the measured life of a mere imitator, we, fortunately, will never know. After all, both fates are sad.
"Orpheus is a tired troubadour"
© Giorgio de Chirico
Physical half
Hardly anyone looking at self-portrait by Giorgio de Chirico 1945 
, where he depicted himself naked, will say: "What an excellent physical form!" Rather: "What a metaphysical form!" De Chirico was always an old man or a prematurely aged child - and remained so all his life. And just because of his art, he was ahead of time in many ways.
For example, he invented metaphysical painting in 1909 in Milan with his brother Andrea, who later took the pseudonym Alberto Savinio. He calls his paintings "riddles" - and indeed deserted squares, the light of the setting sun, long shadows resemble the mysterious, frozen atmosphere of mid-August in the Roman region of Eur. The architecture in de Chirico's paintings portends the architecture of the Fascist period: rational, emasculated, cold, as if calculated to be deserted or to migrate to the equally metaphysical and mysterious films of Michelangelo Antonioni. However, unlike the tapes of the latter, where time flows, albeit very slowly, in de Chirico's paintings it seems to be frozen. It is impossible to fall asleep in front of them, moreover, from their cold atmosphere, the viewer has a strange feeling of anxiety.
"Afternoon Melancholy"
© Giorgio de Chirico
In fact, metaphysics has little to do with painting. It was invented by the philosopher Aristotle to try to explain to us the world of ideas, not the history of art. De Chirico used this concept only to decide whether a picture can tell something that cannot be seen - that is, an idea that exists only in our head. The Riddle of an Autumn Day (1909), depicting Florence as Chernobyl a year after the accident, is in fact more than just a picture, it is rather a state of mind, a memory, an experience, melancholy, or something resembling the title page of a poetry collection Leopardi.
De Chirico preferred the fictitious to the depiction of the real world. Exactly the same thing he did in his life: when he didn’t like something in her, he simply pretended that it didn’t exist, or came up with something better. For example, he preferred to date metaphysical painting in 1910, and designated not Milan, but Florence, as the place of its birth. De Chirico did not like Milan, who reminded him of a cheeky girl. But he adored Florence and Turin - two stout seniors of middle age. Later, he will find the embodiment of his beloved Florence and Turin, first in the Russian ballerina Raisa Gurevich, whom he marries in 1924, and then in Isabella, Iza, another Russian emigrant, whom he met in 1932 and did not part until the end of his life. Iza was not only his wife, but also a manager and mother, on whom the artist depended like a small child. With her, he moved to Rome, to an apartment in the Plaza de España, where he lived until his death.
"Afternoon Melancholy"
© Giorgio de Chirico
But before that, de Chirico, like any self-respecting artist of the early twentieth century, went to Paris to meet Picasso and get his approval, to enter the circle of Apollinaire and the surrealists, poets and artists. In Paris, his work became so iconic that even artists such as Salvador Dali began to imitate them. But when he decided to change his style, he was immediately expelled for betraying the cause of surrealism by the head of the movement, the poet Andre Breton. Which, apparently, was also very dissatisfied with the increased interest of Parisian intellectuals in some Italian.
"Internal metaphysics with the head of Mercury"
© Giorgio de Chirico
The best works of de Chirico were created by him in ten years, from 1909 to 1919. Then he really begins to grow old, declaring himself an anti-modernist, thereby, against his will, turning out to be a harbinger of postmodernism. The meaning of this incomprehensible term, which became very fashionable in the mid-70s, no one could really explain - except that it makes it possible to mix different styles little by little, creating works of not very good taste, kitsch.
Like most artists, de Chirico was belatedly understood: his first exhibition opened in Rome at the Bragaglia Gallery only in 1919. But even on it the only painting was sold, and Roberto Longhi, whose one word in those days decided the fate of the artist, attacked him with criticism. In fact, Longhi was not entirely wrong. De Chirico's paintings began to lose their aura of mystery over time and look too much like illustrations for the Iliad, sometimes resembling complex heaps.
"Archaeologists"
© Giorgio de Chirico
In 1935, he left for New York, where he had huge success and collaborations with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. With the outbreak of World War II, he returned to Europe and began to paint self-portraits in the costume of a 17th-century gentleman, thus entering his “baroque” period and thereby demonstrating either an extraordinary sense of humor or early signs of dementia. Then, at the prompting of his wife, the artist develops a bad habit of putting fake dates on the paintings, confusing everyone, including himself, in the end, and ceasing to distinguish fakes from originals. Whether he became a senile or a swindler - we will never know, but when he came across his own picture, which he had already ceased to like, he wrote “Fake” on it - in order to avoid misunderstandings and thereby
seriously disrupting the market.
But time is still generous, and in the 60-70s, despite the circulation of a large number of fakes with his signature on the market, our great artist begins to receive signs of attention, honors, recognition.
It is exhibited in prestigious museums. He again begins to write in the newly fashionable style of metaphysics and create terrible bronze sculptures - an obligatory stage for all famous artists of his generation. Having lost the depth inherent in mystery and the rebellious spirit of youth, de Chirico discovers the serenity of old age and the uncomplicated joy of composing puzzles and charades. Therefore, the painting of recent years is more of a rebus than a riddle. Many artists of subsequent generations will be inspired by his works, including the transavant-garde artist Sandro Chia. And even Fumito Ueda, creator of the PlayStation 2, will pay tribute to de Chirico with his best-selling games Ico and Shadow of Colossus.
Having gone into seclusion, playing himself, the only character from the history of art, Giorgio de Chirico died on November 20, 1978 at the age of ninety. His metaphysical squares by this time will no longer be deserted: they will be filled with students and mobile police. Instead of a light westerly breeze, a leaden heaviness thickened. In times of revolutionary upsurge, no one needs either the timeless thoughtfulness of Giorgio de Chirico's architecture or his mannequins.
Deserted squares of large cities, washed out under the midday sun or tired after sunset ... Antique columns and arches, proudly and lonely rising above the ground ... Statues silently looking at this melancholy ... Paintings Giorgio de Chirico impregnated not only with paint, but also with mystery, anxiety, silence.
The artist said: “We must not forget that the picture should be a reflection of the inner feeling, and the inner means the strange, the strange means the unknown or not quite known”.
Many believe that the action in the paintings of de Chirico takes place in the dimension of dreams. On these canvases, everything is just as believable and surreal at the same time, as in the “night videos of the subconscious”. Strange combinations of objects, strange atmosphere, fantastic reality. Actually, it's not just that. All these are features of the direction in art invented by de Chirico - metaphysical painting.
The artist founded this movement together with his friend Carlo Carra at the beginning of the 20th century. The popular Wikipedia gives the following explanation of metaphysical painting: “In metaphysical painting, metaphor and dream become the basis for thought to go beyond ordinary logic, and the contrast between a realistically accurately depicted object and the strange atmosphere in which it is placed enhanced the unreal effect”.
Unfortunately, already in the early 1920s, metaphysical painting ceased to exist. In 1921 and 1924, the last two exhibitions of this art direction were held in Germany. However, the brainchild of de Chirico did not die, but only grew into something more - into great Surrealism. The father of this trend, Henri Breton, said that only the works of de Chirico made it possible to express the Surrealist program by means of painting. He also called the artist "the creator of modern mythology."
Heat, silence, anxiety… Stuffy, heavy atmosphere and an extinct city. A little girl with a hoop runs swiftly across a deserted square towards an ominous shadow peeking out from around the corner. The white building with arches characteristic of the artist, drawn as if by a ruler, goes into the distance. The empty van in the foreground grins ominously with its open lid. Interestingly, the image of a girl is completely atypical for de Chirico's painting. Many art historians believe that the child in this picture appeared because of the exhibition, which was held at that time in France. They say that de Chirico was impressed by the work “Sunday on the Island of Grande Jatte” and transferred the little girl to his canvas - the characters are really very similar. It is also interesting that the objects in the painting “The Mystery and Melancholy of the Street” are depicted in different projections: the van in geometric, and the houses in perspective. They have a different distortion coefficient, due to which the effect of strangeness is enhanced.
But back to the plot. What is going on? Where have all the adults gone? Why is this child imperturbably rolling the hoop towards danger? What did the author want to say with this picture? You must find the answers to these questions on your own. In my own subconscious.
Giorgio de Chirico believed that the real world is just a thin shell, under which lies the dark and mysterious world of the subconscious. He wanted to reveal the secret meaning of things through objective and material forms familiar to the eye. The task of the painter, according to the artist, is to be a conductor and mediator between the viewer and his symbols hidden from consciousness.
The great cubist called the artist "singer of stations." This is due to the fact that trains and stations are too often found in his paintings. Here, for example, is the painting "Piazza d'Italia: melancholy." We see a deserted square, a statue of Ariadne, arches. Many art historians believe that this plot contains an interpretation of the myth of Ariadne and her thread. By the way, we see the same heroine in another work - "Ariadne, the silent statue." Again, all the same components of the mosaic: arches, shadows, a statue, a tower, pointed corners and a sketchy image. Someone can see in this an imitation of Picasso, with whom the artist was friends. There is also another painting - "Piazza d'Italia with an equestrian statue." It depicts everything the same, only differs. In general, many of the artist's works on metaphysical themes are very similar to each other. The “Happiness of Return”, “Melancholia”, “Mystery of the Day” and “Red Tower”, as well as the above-described pictures of the Italian square, echo each other.
As for trains, it is interesting that Father Giorgio de Chirico supervised the construction of the railway along the Athens-Thessaloniki line. Perhaps all these locomotives are some kind of hello to one's own childhood or introspection of mental trauma. No wonder the painter read the works of Nietzsche.
“I began to paint pictures in which I could express that powerful and mystical feeling that opened up to me when reading Nietzsche: Italian cities on a clear autumn day, the melancholy of noon ... I can’t imagine art differently. Thought must break away from what we call logic and meaning, free itself from all human attachments in order to see objects from a new angle, highlight their previously unknown features., said the artist.
