There are more enigmas in the shadow of a man walking in the sun than in all the religions of the past, present and future. Giorgio de Chirico, 1912

2. There are more enigmas in the shadow of a man walking in the sun than in all the religions of the past, present and future.
Giorgio de Chirico, 1912

3. enigma, dream ...
atmosphere of melancholy and uneasy menace
deserted Italian piazza with spectral figures and shadows
a girl with a hoop drifts toward a statuesque figure lingering in the shadows, chasing the sun
Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus, in a melancholy pose, while a steaming locomotive moves away in the distance
a mannequin in front of an easel

5. Giorgio de Chirico
Metaphysical painting

6. the universe of Chirico's childhood in Vólos, Thessaly,
the starting point for the voyage of the Argonauts,
and home of the sagas of Centaurs,
a natural world inhabited by nymphs and giants …
the rocky mountain in full majesty
and
Prometheus
Giorgio de Chirico
Prometheus
Prométhée
autumn,automne 1908
Collezione Paolo Volponi

9. the countryside seems to evoke the Greek
region of Arcadia, with its vines, cypress trees
and ancient-style columns.
the fountain is decorated with a low relief,
which could represent the two faces of the
Roman god Janus, one looking to the past
and the other toward the future
Giorgio de Chirico
Serenata
Sérénade
1909
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

13. an mythological theme of the centaur, using unusual brushwork ...
Giorgio de Chirico
Centauro morente
Dying Centaur
Centaure mourant
spring, printemps 1909
Collezione di Generali Italia, Roma

16. the first metaphysical works date from around 1910 …
ancient buildings, contrasts of light and shade,
the symbolic figures that could suggest vague
emotions and sensations such as solitude, nostalgia
and desire
a Italian Piazza, nearly empty
a single statue and a couple,
a sailboat floats in the distant background,
an afternoon's golden light
... de Chirico creates a place that has never existed,
imagined to create a sense of haunted isolation,
the sense of a mystery
Giorgio de Chirico
The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon
L’énigme d’un après-midi d’automne
1910
Private collection

19. paintings inspired by Turin ...
an ideal scene, city of arcades
as the decor for his statues of the sleeping Ariadne,
his male effigies and trains,
metaphors of the Nietzschean feminine/masculine Dionysian/Apollonian dialectic
the painting draws inspiration from the Mole Antonelliana,
a landmark tower in the city of Turin
a large tower
two small shadowy figures resembling those in future works by Salvador Dalí
Giorgio de Chirico
The Nostalgia of the Infinite
La nostalgie de l’infini
Paris, 1912
Museum of Modern Art, New York City

22. the passing train,
the perishable bananas ...
the contemporary and immediate
in contrast
the classical arcades,
statuary of antiquity - a torso of Aphrodite
Giorgio de Chirico
The Uncertainty of the Poet
L’incertitude du poète
Paris, 1913
Tate Modern, London

26. colonnades that lead nowhere
and
a locomotive, ominous or threatening,
akin to a caged beast
Giorgio de Chirico
The Anxious Journey
L’angoissant voyage
Paris, Spring-Summer, Printemps-Été 1913
Museum of Modern Art, New York City

30. a desolate public square...
a statue of a slumbering Ariadne
according to the Greek myth, Theseus abandoned
his lover Ariadne on the island of Naxos while she slept
Ariadne acquired great personal symbolic meaning for
de Chirico after he moved to Paris in 1911 and entered
a period of isolation and loneliness
Giorgio de Chirico
Ariadne
Ariane
1913
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

34. a lone statue in a deserted Italian piazza ...
the antique statue represents the sleeping Ariadne,
who according to Greek mythology was abandoned
by her lover on the desert island of Naxos.
the confrontation of the classical world with
a modern steam engine in the distance creates
an uneasy ambiguity of time and space
Giorgio de Chirico
The Soothsayer’s Recompense
La Récompense du devin
June-July, Juin-Juillet 1913
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia

38. a partly concealed equestrian monument
and
a crenellated tower
(the tower recalls the reflections of Nietzsche on the
complementarity of masculine and feminine)
Giorgio de Chirico
The Red Tower, also known as The Pink Tower
La Tour rouge, dite aussi La Tour rose
First half of, Première moitié de 1913
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
(Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York)

42. a claustrophobic and enigmatic space ...
a plaster bust with dark glasses, a mannequin, and a fish mold on an obelisk
are compressed into a narrow vertical format
the poetry – represented by the plaster bust wearing black sunglasses – as the
art of clairvoyants:
blind to the present day, poets like Apollinaire are capable of perceiving the past
and the future with clarity
Giorgio de Chirico
The Nostalgia of the Poet
La nostalgie du poète
Summer-Autumn, Été-Automne 1914
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

45. a classical arcade, oddly oversize artichokes,
a cannon and cannonballs, a clock,
an industrial brick chimney, a monumental tower,
a running train, a square-rigged sailing ship
and
an Italian piazza, virtually deserted except for the menacing
shadowy figures outside the edge of the scene ...
Giorgio de Chirico
The Philosopher’s Conquest
La Conquête du philosophe
Paris, January, Janvier 1914
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

50. a menacing masterpiece of the 20th century, a dream of death that
happened to come true
a man of stone, a marble bust wearing blind man's glasses;
he looks right at us, however: his blindness is that of the seer,
the poet
the poet sees or engenders visions of impossible conjunctions:
the moulds of a fish and a shell on Renaissance architecture,
and
the silhouette of a man on whose head a white circle has been drawn
the silhouette is that of Apollinaire …
Giorgio de Chirico
Premonitory Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire
Portrait [prémonitoire] de Guillaume Apollinaire
Paris, 1914
Georges Pompidou Center, Paris

52. a prophetic vision …
in 1914, de Chirico painted Apollinaire in silhouette with what looks like a target drawn on his cranium.
Apollinaire enlisted in the French army in the first world war and in 1917 was severely wounded - in the head.
He underwent a brain operation in the difficult period before his death.

55. the arresting strangeness ...
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)
a yellow book with a red bookmark
(that has been interpreted as an allegorical representation
of male/female intercourse)
Giorgio de Chirico
The Revenant, The Child’s Brain
Le Revenant, Le Cerveau de l’enfant
Italy, 1914
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden

59. a scene that spurs a sense of confusion ...
a bust of a classical sculpture, a rubber ball, a rubber glove
and a train passing
the bust could be a representation of De Chirico's love
of classical art and a disappearing age
the painter uses the rubber glove as a mold of a hand
that implies the void of human presence
the buildings set up a scene that is reminiscent of the cityscapes
of De Chirico's past
Giorgio de Chirico
The Song of Love
Le Chant d'amour
Paris, June-July, Juin-Juillet 1914
Museum of Modern Art, New York

63. one most baffling metaphysical pictures
an unsettling and impossible universe
buildings in the style of Renaissance architecture
a deserted public space
...
two figures intrude into the late afternoon light:
a girl with a hoop
and
the shadow of a statue
and in the darkened foreground:
a horse-box on wheels, whose open doors and
dark interior add to the overall feeling of latent menace
Giorgio de Chirico
Melancholy and Mystery of a Street
Mystère et mélancolie d’une rue
1914
Collection particulière

66. a masterpiece of the time
the Seer
figure, seated on a wooden chopping block, whose cubed
shape symbolises the material world
on his forehead he wears a headband with a star, recalling
those worn by the priests of ancient initiation cults
and
the shadow cast on the ground seems to be that of a statue
out of the field of vision, similar to the outline drawn
on the blackboard
Giorgio de Chirico
The Seer
Le Vaticinateur
Paris, Winter, Hiver 1914-1915
Museum of Modern Art, New York

68. a mannequin in front of an easel:
a male subject who, though faceless, is engaging with the world around him through his activity as a creator
a single, cyclops-like eye, alludes to his special vision, namely, to his ability to see and depict enigmas

71. a statue of a man in a frock-coat
staring contemplatively into an open sky
a wooden beam, perhaps part of an easel
large arches and a window open
stick-like figures of two men meeting
and
the dummy's head looming over the landscape like
a hot air balloon
Giorgio de Chirico
The Double Dream of Spring
Le Double Rêve du printemps
Paris, January-May, Janvier-Mai 1915
Museum of Modern Art, New York City

74. one of the most famous paintings both by De Chirico
and of all metaphysical art ...
the Disquieting Muses Thalia and Melpomene,
the muse of comedy and tragedy as Apollo are lifeless,
they seem to be part of the props of a dreamlike play,
as absurd as reality
Giorgio de Chirico
The Disquieting Muses
Les muses inquiétantes
Rome, 1916
Private Collection

77. one of the earliest editions in a series of works that
extended late into de Chirico's career
a room cluttered with objects in a surreal arrangement
a panel on which are mounted several biscuits arranged
to resemble an abstract face
an irregularly shaped frame, an architectural scene
in the style of de Chirico's earlier work
Giorgio de Chirico
Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits
Intérieur métaphysique avec des biscuits
1916
The Menil Collection, Houston

80. a lost and isolated figure wandering through the melancholy emptiness
of an anonymous piazza ...
Giorgio de Chirico
Il trovatore
The Troubadour
Le Troubadour
1917
Private collection

83. one of Giorgio De Chirico's major works
composition typical of the series of 'metaphysical interiors' begun
in 1916, representing figures and symbolic objects within enclosed
spaces.
the enigmatic 'revenant' with its closed eyes and cruciform
moustache and goatee
and
a decapitated and mutilated tailor's dummy leaning against
a scaffolding of geometrical instruments represents
'the spirit of our age’
Giorgio De Chirico
Il Ritornante
Winter, Hiver 1917-1918
Centre Pompidou, Paris

86. a disturbing interpretation of Homer’s moving scene ...
an otherworldly landscape
a sense of isolation
the Scaean Gate in an austere setting
two figures located in a time and place that seems distant
and beyond civilization,
two faceless and armless mannequins, supported by crutches,
and
with the baby Astyanax which is reduced to a steel wedge
with a black disk for its head
Giorgio de Chirico
Hector and Andromache
Hector et Andromaque
Paris, 1917
Private collection

89. painted by Chirico the day after the armistice ...
a strange enigmatic painting of two fish,
an early Christian symbol of salvation and rebirth
Giorgio de Chirico
Sacred Fish, I pesci sacri
Les Poissons sacrés, I pesci sacri
December 1918-January 1919, Décembre 1918-Janvier 1919
Etro Collection

92. The Sacred Fish
... for Chirico, it will take the form of a return to the classical tradition,
to the great displeasure of the surrealists who will call him a "renegade".
Art history too, has its trench wars !

93. olga_oes
Giorgio de Chirico
Metaphysical painting
La peinture métaphysique
images and text credit www.
Music ThePianoGuys Lauren Daigle You Say Sonata Pathétique (PianoCello)
created olga.e.
thanks for watching

94. Giorgio de Chirico left behind a labyrinthine legacy. Through tumultuous adoration, persistent critique, and firm fluctuation, the
painter emerges as one of the most enigmatic in modern history, sparking bewilderment even today.
His appeal stems from his increasingly obscure allure, his ability to pull heartstrings through subtle strategies, some even
subconscious.

96. Giorgio de Chirico
Autoritratto
Self Portrait
Autoportrait
Rome 1920
Neue Pinakothek, Munich