The formation of the work of Giorgio de Chirico, biography and paintings. Melancholy and metaphysical painting

IN Tretyakov Gallery Another grand exhibition opened - a retrospective of Giorgio de Chirico, the pioneer of metaphysical painting and the forerunner of surrealism. Before walking through the “Metaphysical Insights” exhibition, we decided to collect all the most interesting things about de Chirico’s work and look at his work through the eyes of experts.

Metaphysics de Chirico

“The metaphysics of Giorgio de Chirico was born in Florence in 1910, when he painted the painting “The Riddle of an Autumn Afternoon,” in which he reworked the image of the Dante monument in Piazza Santa Croce in a mysterious way. The painting became the first step in a pictorial search that occupied a central place in Italian art of the first half of the last century. De Chirico turned to metaphysics because he felt the need to return to painting the “plot” that it had completely lost during the Fauvist and Cubist revolution - a revolution that focused on form and opened the way abstract art. De Chirico makes a genuine revolution: he contrasts the openly stated narrative plot that painting is intended to illustrate with an elusive, mysterious plot. The plot becomes a mystery.” Maurizio Calvesi, art historian.

Archeology de Chirico

“In de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings, an architecture that is magical in its atmosphere appears, similar to that which can be seen in the paintings of the Italian Quattrocento. De Chirico, who grew up in Greece, developed a “sense of archeology” from childhood, which helped him see the multi-layered nature of our consciousness, the fragments that fill it - these fragments remain unnoticed for a long time, and then suddenly, for some unknown reason, float to the surface. This partly lost world appears in half-empty spaces, bounded by loggias and arches, in long shadows that fall at midday, in silence. The same figures appear in the “Piazza d’Italia,” for example, the sad Ariadne from the Vatican Museums, mannequins, and drawing tools. In 1917, repeated elements would allow de Chirico to develop a theory based on the idea of ​​eternal recurrence: it is most clearly expressed by the impossible embrace, which refers to the story of Hector and Andromache (1917).

De Chirico and the past

“Since 1968, de Chirico has studied formal elements from other artists, reviving them and combining them in his work. Behind this was an openly analytical approach. De Chirico used numerous elements artistic tradition, which goes from the “primitives” to the masters of the Renaissance and Baroque, ending with the great landscape painters who worked at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. At the end of this journey into the past, he could not help but reconsider his own work as a painter, which he began over half a century ago, creating the famous metaphysics.” Gianni Mercurio, art historian.

De Chirico and Sergei Diaghilev

“In 1929, the artist accepted Diaghilev’s offer to become the set designer for the ballet “The Ball” and went to Monte Carlo, where the production was planned. In his memoirs, he wrote: “Diaghilev, a balletomane, invited the most notable artists to paint scenery and costumes. I was also invited for a ballet called Le Bal to the music of the composer Rietti; this ballet was given in Monte Carlo in the spring of 1929 and in the summer it was given in Paris at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater. Was big success; towards the end, the applauding audience began shouting: “Sciricò! Sciricò! I was forced to go on stage to bow along with Rietti and the main dancers.” Diaghilev was not the only Russian entrepreneur who turned to de Chirico: in the 1930s he became director of the production department of the Milan Opera Nikolai Benois, who invited de Chirico, among other famous Italian artists, to design performances.”

De Chirico and Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Malevich was the first to show interest in de Chirico and respond to his art. In the late 1920s, he was immersed in post-Suprematist experiments, integrating the artistic and philosophical principles of Suprematism into figurative creativity. Malevich was interested in similar searches in this area, and de Chirico turned out to be one of such masters - although his figurativeness did not evolve from the avant-garde movements of the 1900s, it took into account their achievements. Of the entire arsenal of de Chirico’s art (in the 1920s he turned to neoclassicism, causing the indignation of the surrealists), at that time metaphysical painting became the most consonant with Malevich’s aspirations, solving plastic and figurative problems of objectivity within the framework and in the spirit modern understanding tasks of art. Tatyana Goryacheva, curator of the Giorgio de Chirico exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery.

How are de Chirico and Cindy Sherman similar?

"In the late 1980s, Cindy Sherman worked on " Historical portraits" In these color photographs, using prosthetics, masks and makeup (all of which are emphasized rather than hidden), Sherman recreates a long series of portraits and paintings from the past - some of which actually exist (for example, the artist draws on the work of Caravaggio, Fouquet, etc.), others are fictitious. Sherman photographs herself, creating staged compositions, acting like a director, carefully structuring the scene - everything is believable and fake at the same time. From the very beginning, the theme of dressing up was important to the artist. This clearly echoes the way de Chirico not only recycled elements borrowed from portraits of the past, but also how he emphasized the borrowing by actually trying on period costumes. Gianni Mercurio, art historian.

Based on the publication “De Chirico. Nostalgia for infinity." State Tretyakov Gallery.

"Orpheus - a tired troubadour"

© Giorgio de Chirico

Half physical

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 that is precisely why he was ahead of his time in many ways with his art.

For example, he invented metaphysical painting in Milan in 1909 together with his brother Andrea, who later took the pseudonym Alberto Savinio. He calls his paintings “mysteries” - and the truly deserted squares, the light of the setting sun, and long shadows are reminiscent of the mysterious, frozen atmosphere of mid-August in the Roman district of Eure. The architecture in de Chirico's paintings foreshadows the architecture of the period of fascism: rational, emasculated, cold, as if designed to be deserted or to migrate to equally metaphysical and mystery movies Michelangelo Antonioni. However, unlike the latter’s films, where time flows, albeit very slowly, in de Chirico’s paintings it seems to have frozen. It is impossible to fall asleep in front of them; moreover, their cold atmosphere gives the viewer a strange feeling of anxiety.

"Afternoon Melancholy"

© Giorgio de Chirico

In fact, metaphysics has little in common 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 painting could tell about something that cannot be seen - that is, about an idea that exists only in our heads. "Mystery autumn day(1909), depicting Florence looking like Chernobyl a year after the accident, is actually more than just a painting, it is rather a state of mind, a memory, an experience, melancholy or something resembling title page Leopardi's poetry collection.

De Chirico preferred the fictional world to the depiction of the real world. He did exactly the same thing in his life: when he didn’t like something about it, he simply pretended that it didn’t exist, or came up with something better. For example, he preferred to date metaphysical painting to 1910, and designated Florence, rather than Milan, as its birthplace. De Chirico did not like Milan, who reminded him of a cheeky girl. But he adored Florence and Turin - two overweight middle-aged gentlemen. He would later find the embodiment of his beloved Florence and Turin, first in the Russian ballerina Raisa Gurevich, whom he married in 1924, and then in Isabella, Isa, another Russian emigrant, whom he met in 1932 and was not separated until the end of his life. Iza was not only his wife, but also his manager and mother, on whom the artist depended as Small child. With her he moved to Rome, to an apartment in Piazza di Spagna, 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 receive his approval, to enter the circle of Apollinaire and the surrealists, poets and artists. In Paris, his works 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. Who, apparently, was also very dissatisfied with the increased interest of Parisian intellectuals in some Italian.

"Inner Metaphysics with the Head of Mercury"

© Giorgio de Chirico

De Chirico's best works were created 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 little by little different styles, creating works of not very good taste, kitsch.

Like most artists, de Chirico was understood belatedly: his first exhibition opened in Rome at the Bragaglia Gallery only in 1919. But even the only painting on it 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. Over time, de Chirico’s paintings began to lose their aura of mystery and looked too much like illustrations to the Iliad, sometimes resembling complex heaps.

"Archaeologists"

© Giorgio de Chirico

In 1935, he left for New York, where he experienced enormous success and collaboration 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 gets into the bad habit of putting false dates on his paintings, eventually confusing everyone, including himself, and ceasing to distinguish fakes from originals. Whether he became a senile or a swindler, we will never know, but when did he come across own painting, which he no longer liked, he wrote “Fake” on it - in order to avoid misunderstandings and thereby
seriously disrupting the market.

But time is still generous, and in the 60s and 70s, despite the circulation on the market of a large number of fakes with his signature, our great artist begins to receive attention, honors, recognition.

It is exhibited in prestigious museums. He again begins to write in the newly fashionable style of metaphysics and create terrible sculptures made of bronze - a mandatory step for everyone famous artists 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 simple 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 trans-avant-garde artist Sandro Chia. And even Fumito Ueda, the creator of the PlayStation 2, paid tribute to de Chirico with his best-selling games Ico and Shadow of Colossus.

Reclusive, playing himself, the only character from the history of art, Giorgio de Chirico died on November 20, 1978 at the age of ninety. By this time, its metaphysical squares will no longer be deserted: they will be filled with students and mobile police. Instead of a light western 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.

The first Russian exhibition of Giorgio de Chirico, one of the main Italian surrealists, known for his metaphysical painting, opened at the Tretyakov Gallery. Buro 24/7 tells you what you need to know about the artist before visiting the exhibition.

Metaphysics and early creativity

The de Chirico family comes from Greece. After the death of his father, the future artist and his family moved to Munich, where he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. During his Munich years he was influenced by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and Otto Weininger. Their ideas form his worldview, which he himself calls “metaphysics” - one of the main branches of philosophy, which examines questions of primary existence. Metaphysical painting would not receive its name until 1917, when de Chirico met the artist Carlo Carra, whose search for a formal language was in many ways close to the master.

Self-portrait in a black sweater. Giorgio de Chirico. 1957

Nevertheless, all of de Chirico’s works of the 1910s can be classified as “metaphysics” - desert landscapes, where lonely characters appear against the backdrop of urban architecture with expressive shadows, or still lifes with classical busts, fruits and balls. As follows from the artist’s own memoirs, the first metaphysical insight arose in his mind in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. “It suddenly seemed to me as if I was seeing everything around me for the first time,” he later wrote in his memoirs. This episode formed the basis of the first metaphysical picture - “The Mystery of an Autumn Afternoon” (1910).

Another important factor of influence in de Chirico’s work is the work of the German symbolists, Max Klinger and Arnold Böcklin, with whom de Chirico himself is initially compared. The pictorial and philosophical influences of this time would appear only a few years later, during the artist's stay in Paris. Following Munich, de Chirico moved to Milan and Florence, and after the war he finally reached Paris, where in the 1910s the career of de Chirico and other masters of the era took place - Pablo Picasso, Amadeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Constantin Brancusi and many others. Although de Chirico’s work is not directly related to them, Paris as an artistic environment played an important role in his development.

"Melancholy and the Mystery of the Street." Giorgio de Chirico. 1914

Another artist who influenced the formation of metaphysical painting was de Chirico’s younger brother, Alberto Savinio. Together with him, de Chirico published the magazine “Plastic Values”, and also published a number of theoretical works, in which the fundamental principles of metaphysical painting were defined. Among them are transparency and irony, which later became main characteristic poetic and dreamy paintings of metaphysicians.

The first part of the exhibition is devoted to the period of the 1910s and metaphysics as the main method of de Chirico. The works of the 1920s and 30s, in which the artist reinterprets antiquity and the Old Masters, represent a logical continuation of the first stage. Between them, the viewer finds himself in the world of Diaghilev’s ballets, in the creation of costumes for which de Chirico was directly involved.

Costumes for Diaghilev's ballets and a return to eternal themes

If at the beginning of his career, costumes and scenery for Diaghilev were created mainly by members of the World of Art group - Lev Bakst, Valentin Serov and Alexander Benois, then Andre Derain and Pablo Picasso are working on this in Paris. The latter also created the scenography for the ballet Pulcinella in 1920. In 1931, after the death of Diaghilev, this production returned to the stage in the scenery of de Chirico. In addition, the artist designed costumes for latest project Diaghilev's Ball (1929), as well as for Proteus, staged by the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo at Covent Garden.

"Song of Love". Giorgio de Chirico. 1914

The turn of the 1920s-30s in de Chirico’s work was marked not only by his work in the theater, but also by his interest in historical and mythical subjects. During these same years, he began working on the aforementioned magazine “Plastic Values,” which revived the ideals of classical painting. Historical subjects such as the Trojan War and the Battle of Thermopylae appear on de Chirico’s canvases, and fragments of aqueducts, columns and temples are combined into single figures of “Archaeologists”. These motifs serve as references to the profession of his wife Raisa Gurevich-Krat. In those same years, de Chirico often turned to the art of the Old Masters: among his paintings it is easy to recognize the prototypes of Watteau, Titian, Boucher, Fragonard, Canaletto and Rubens.

Separate sections of the exhibition are presented by sculpture and graphics by the artist - terracotta figures in bronze and sketches of the same mannequins, as well as preparatory sketches for paintings. The cycle of one hundred works presented at the exhibition ends with the concept of “Neo-metaphysics” - this is the name given to the late period of creativity from 1968 to 1976. At this time, the artist created copies of existing works, reworking them in a new style, much more complex. A striking example This is “The Inner Metaphysics of the Workshop,” where the artist’s seemingly familiar canvases are depicted inside a new painting.

« Internal metaphysics of the workshop». Giorgio de Chirico. 1969

De Chirico most significantly influenced the painting of the surrealists, whose association arose ten years after the appearance of metaphysical artists. Without the work of de Chirico, it is difficult to imagine the works of Salvador Dali or Rene Magritte, and Andre Breton himself was so fascinated by the painting “The Brain of a Child” that he got off the bus when he saw it in the window.

Although only his work for Diaghilev’s ballets is associated with Russia, curator Tatyana Goryacheva draws parallels between Italian artist and the Suprematist Malevich, and the dreamy Deineka, and the Cubists Shevchenko and Rozhdestvensky. This can best be understood only by seeing it with your own eyes.

Giorgio de Chirico, the outstanding Italian surrealist artist, the founder of metaphysical painting, was born and raised in Greece, and perhaps it is this fact that makes him so different from his colleagues in the workshop.
De Chirico, rather, is not even a surrealist - he is an unrealist, his reality is not surreal, it is unreal, like in a dream. He is the lord of dreams, not the creator of another reality. The action on his canvases takes place in another dimension - in the dimension of dreams.

De Chirico “Melancholy and Mystery of the Street”, 1914 - blog.i.ua

For some reason, the first thing that comes to mind when looking at the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico is their similarity to the novels of Vladimir Nabokov. The same expanded, endless space, the same absence of sound: there is a picture, but there is no sound. How many times have you screamed silently in your sleep? Find yourself in a room without walls, ceiling and floor?

When you look at de Chirico’s paintings, not for a moment do you experience any bewilderment or a heavy feeling: they are light, like the light, strict, stingy Greek Antiquity, on which de Chirico was brought up, having been born in the Greek city of Volos on the shores of the Pagasean Gulf.

De Chirico “Nostalgia for the Infinite” - http:/blog.i.ua

We made Giorgio de Chirico “Person of the Week” for several reasons: firstly, because he is connected with Greece by an umbilical cord, like a son with his mother, and this connection runs like a red thread in his art, and secondly, because this year two anniversaries of de Chirico are celebrated at once - 130 years since his birth and 35 years since his death, and thirdly - because personal life de Chirico also had a connection to Russia... through his two Russian wives!

Well, to be completely frank, the image of Giorgio de Chirico surfaced in our memory in connection with the recent night journey of the legendary Mudzurisa (Koptelki) train along the historical railway line connecting the villages of the mountain (and peninsula) at the beginning of the 20th century. Pelion, where centaurs lived in mythological times.

We will tell you below what the connection is between the master of painting, the Italian de Chirico, and the provincial “Koptelka”.

Living mythology

This is Evaristo, whose name is still remembered today kind words in Greek Thessaly, he built a branch in Pelion, among dense pine, oak, and cedar forests, where, as old-timers say, to this day especially sensitive ears hear the clatter of centaurs’ hooves. It was thanks to Evaristo de Chirico that “Muzouris”, “Koptelka”, ran from village to village of Pilion, making it easier for the inhabitants of Pilion to move around.

Self-portrait. Photo from the site - uploads4.wikipaintings.org

Of the two sons of the de Chirico family, neither the eldest Giorgio nor the younger Andrea became an engineer, as their strict father wished. Strict, but not tyrannical: he not only did not interfere with his children’s passion for art, but, on the contrary, encouraged them to study painting, music, and literature. And, if he had lived a little longer - and Evaristo died in 1905 - he would probably have been proud of his teaching talents and parental tolerance. Giorgio became an outstanding painter, Andrea, who adopted the pseudonym Alberto Savigno, became famous writer, metaphysical art theorist, musician and artist. True, Andrea, who was only 3 years younger than Giorgio, lived 26 years less in this world: he died in 1952, at the age of 61. It was precisely in the brevity of his life that he was like his father...

And yet Evaristo was an artist. Let him be an artist in metal, an artist of living paintings that moved against a living background, amazingly beautiful landscape. He was a creator, a tamer of nature.

“I spent my first years in the land of Classicism, playing on the shores that remember the ship “ARGO” still setting off on its voyage, at the foot of the mountain that witnessed the birth of the fleet-footed Achilles and the wise instructions of his teacher, the centaur,”- Dorgio de Chirico wrote in his autobiography, like Achilles, brought up on ancient Greek wisdom.

Both great de Chirico brothers lingered deep in their souls in their childhood, which ended not even with the move to Athens in 1899, but with the death of their father and departure to Munich. Greece for both will remain a symbol of innocence, cloudless happiness, that very period in which, like in a work of art, “there should be no logic,” as Giorgio de Chirico argued. Andrea de Chirico, more precisely, Alberto Savigno, in 1919 in his poem of the same name, told his readers about the “tragedy of childhood,” more precisely, lost childhood, as if lost paradise:

“Be quiet and rest. It's quiet here
The very voice of life. Ancient lament
The dying echo will return later,
The moment the charm dies.
Bow before the unchanging peace,
In which it melts, losing magic,
Chant of the Siren.
Faster than to the calling coasts
You will land, they will go into exile,
Shrouded in fog, Compassion
Beloved daughters - hopes

Translation by Katerina Kanaka

We don't know how it would have turned out creative destiny Giorgio de Chirico, if he had stayed in Greece and completed his studies at the Polytechnic, with the outstanding Greek teacher-painters Giorgos Iakovidis and Constantine Volonakis, in whose workshops he spent two years, from 1903 to 1905. In any case, the move to Munich and the Munich Academy of Arts did not make the realist artist Giorgio de Chirico. He was conquered by Paris, where he moved to his brother, and where he met Andre Breton, Guillaume Apollinaire, Pablo Picasso.

De Chirico "Archaeologists". Photo from the site - smallbay.ru/chirico.html

Ancient art, the dream of Greece, memories and acute feeling loneliness, blurred boundaries between reality and dreams became the material from which Giorgio de Chirico made his paintings. In the middle life path- together with his Russian wife Raisa Gurevich, and for the last 45 years of his life - with his wife of Russian origin, Isabella Pakszver.

Russian wives of Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico met his first wife, ballerina Raisa Gurevich, in 1923 in Italy, at the Pirandello Theater, during a production of Igor Stravinsky’s play “The Story of a Soldier”: the artist made the scenery, the ballerina danced. On next year they got married, moved to Paris, and Raisa left ballet to devote herself to her more talented husband. But the role of a housewife did not quite suit her: having become interested in archeology, she graduated from the department of classical archeology at the Sorbonne. A creative woman could not be content with just the role of the wife of a genius: she had enough strength to make her contribution, if not to art, but to science, and she made it.

After breaking up with de Chirico in the early 30s, the former ballerina and accomplished archaeologist moved to Italy. The last marriage of Raisa Gurevich with the director of the archaeological expedition, the outstanding Italian archaeologist Guido Calza, was more fruitful: Raisa Gurevich Calza herself became an outstanding scientist-historian, whose contribution to science was highly appreciated by the Italian government, which awarded her a gold medal for her contribution to Italian culture.

It is noteworthy that Raisa Gurevich-Calza, who was widowed less than 10 years after her marriage, in 1946, survived Giorgio de Chirico by only a year, and was, like the artist, buried in a Roman cemetery.

After separating from Raisa Gurevich, Giorgio de Chirico married for the second time in 1933 to Isabella Pakszver, a woman with Russian roots, with whom he lived until the end of his life.

We couldn't find practically anything about her. Perhaps only in a short article by Konstantin Korelov “Paradoxes of Painting”. It does not indicate the name of "de Chirico's wife", but we're talking about specifically about Isabella Paxzver:

"Boris Messerer, now - folk artist Russia, and in the 60s of the last century, an aspiring theater decorator, at one time visited Giorgio de Chirico in Rome. Messerer's memories vividly characterize last years Italian artist.

“Upon entering the apartment, we were shocked by the luxury of the furnishings. On the walls are huge paintings in golden frames, depicting some horses and naked women on these horses, rushing somewhere. Plots of baroque content, having nothing to do with metaphysical painting. A completely different Chirico - salon, luxurious, but absolutely no avant-garde ideas.”

Chiriko’s wife served as translator at the meeting, but there was no conversation as such. The guests asked to show them “those” paintings that made the painter’s name, but the wife stubbornly pointed her finger at the academic daub hanging on the walls, claiming that this was the true Chirico.

De Chirico “School of Gladiators” - http://blog.i.ua

“Suddenly, Signor de Chirico goes 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 we were talking about! We are shocked, these are the pictures we wanted to see! His wife was very unhappy with this whole situation. And then it turned out that she was friends with Furtseva, our minister of culture at 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..."

That's the story! Isabella Pakszver was a friend of Ekaterina Furtseva!

Truly the ways of the Lord are inscrutable!

Just like the paths of art!

The film "Paradox" is about Giorgio de Chirico. Source - www.youtube.com/paradoxirina

Deserted squares big cities, worn out under the midday sun or tired after sunset... Antique columns and arches, proudly and lonely towering above the ground... Statues silently looking at this melancholy... Paintings Giorgio de Chirico imbued 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 an internal sensation, and internal means strange, strange means unknown or not entirely known.”.

Many believe that the action in de Chirico's paintings takes place in the dimension of dreams. On these canvases everything is as believable and surreal at the same time, as in “night videos of the subconscious.” Strange combinations of objects, strange atmosphere, fantastic reality. In fact, all this is not just like 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 enhances the surreal effect.”.

Unfortunately, already in the early 20s, metaphysical painting ceased to exist. The last two exhibitions of this art movement took place in Germany in 1921 and 1924. However, de Chirico’s brainchild did not die, but only grew into something more - into the great Surrealism. The father of this movement, Henri Breton, said that only the works of de Chirico made it possible to express the program of the surrealists through painting. He also called the artist “the creator of modern mythology.”

Heat, silence, anxiety... Stifling, heavy atmosphere and an extinct city. A little girl with a hoop quickly runs across a deserted square straight towards an ominous shadow peeking out from around the corner. A white building with arches characteristic of the artist, drawn as if using a ruler, goes into the distance. The empty van in the foreground grins ominously with its open lid. It is interesting that the image of the girl is completely atypical for de Chirico’s painting. Many art historians believe that the child in this painting appeared due to an exhibition taking place at that time in France. They say that de Chirico was impressed by the work “A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte” and transferred the little girl to his canvas - the characters are indeed 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 a geometric one, and the houses in a perspective one. They have different distortion rates, which enhances the strangeness effect.

But let's get back to the plot. What's going on? Where have all the adults gone? Why is this child calmly rolling a hoop towards danger? What did the author want to say with this picture? You must find the answers to these questions yourself. In your own subconscious.

Giorgio de Chirico believed that real world- this is just a thin shell, under which hides the dark and mysterious world subconscious. He wanted to reveal secret meaning things through objects familiar to the eye and material forms. The task of the painter, according to the artist, is to be a guide and mediator between the viewer and his symbols hidden from consciousness.

The great Cubist called the artist “the singer of the train 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 is 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, the same components of the mosaic: arches, shadows, a statue, a tower, pointed corners and a sketchy image. Some may see this as an imitation of Picasso, with whom the artist was friends. There is also another painting - “Piazza d’Italia with an equestrian statue”. It shows everything the same, only different. In general, many of the artist’s works on metaphysical themes are very similar to each other. “The Happiness of Return”, “Melancholy”, “The Mystery of the Day” and “The Red Tower”, as well as the above-described paintings of the Italian square, echo each other.

As for the trains, it is interesting that Father Giorgio de Chirico supervised the construction railway along the Athens-Thessaloniki line. Perhaps all these locomotives are some kind of greeting to one’s own childhood or an introspection of mental trauma. It was not for nothing that the painter read the works of Nietzsche.

“I began to paint pictures in which I could express that powerful and mystical feeling that was revealed to me when reading Nietzsche: Italian cities on a clear autumn day, the melancholy of midday... I cannot imagine art in any other way. 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, to highlight their previously unknown features.”, said the artist.