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ART HISTORY 4450 Pittura Metafisica
Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) • •
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biography: born in Greece to Italian parents training: – Polytechnic Institute (Athens, 1900) – Academy of Fine Arts (Munich, 1906) – influence of Symbolist painter Böcklin – influence of Nietzsche’s writings to “refute reality” motifs: strange cityscapes – source of imagery was Turin (Italy) – created a fantasy town, a state of mind – elements • deserted city arcades & piazzas • brooding statues • mannequins • lengthening shadows • passing trains theme: “metaphysical” – signifies alienation, dreaming and loss – aims to destabilize meaning of everyday objects by making them symbols of • fear • alienation • uncertainty
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de Chirico •
context: aesthetic – –
when Surrealists first discovered him, saw him as “a fixed point” however, became “a metaphysical or mystic rope to be placed afterwards round our necks” (Breton) • represented in every number of La Révolution Surréaliste, but article devoted to him by Breton in June 1926 issue passed a crushing judgment on him – due to perceived shift in style post-1919 – declared de Chirico unworthy of “marvels” of his metaphysical period
de Chirico •
Ariadne (1913) –
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motifs: childhood memory of Turin (Italy) • architectural settings – towers – piazza • trains • Classical forms & poses perspective: exaggerated linear; aerial
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composition: dynamic
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color: muted
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light/shadow: Nietzsche • hidden realities seen in strange juxtapositions • long shadows cast by setting sun into large open city squares & public monuments
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de Chirico •
Mystery & Melancholy of a Street – date: 1914 – narrative: isolation & sense of foreboding – composition: dynamic – perspective: linear & aerial • Mannerist exaggerations • bizarre spatial constructions – color: limited range – light/shadow: black silhouettes
de Chirico •
The Disquieting Muses (1916) –
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setting: Turin • background architecture (Montparnasse Station) • piazza • factory smokestacks theme: Classical origins • Ovid fate of the Pierides – “daring taunts and affronting scorn” went too far – crime sentences them to be transformed into Magpies central figures: • Classical sculpture combined w/ mannequin head • abstracted human female • Classical sculpture scale: deliberately disproportionate perspective: linear light/shadow: Nietzschian
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IMAGE INDEX •
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DE CHIRICO, Giorgio. The Child’s Brain (1914), Oil on canvas, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweeden Photograph of Giorgio DE CHIRICO DE CHIRICO, Giorgio. Ariadne (1913), Oil and graphite on canvas, 53 3/8 x 71 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. DE CHIRICO, Giorgio. Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914), Oil on canvas, Private Collection. DE CHIRICO, Giorgio. The Disquieting Muses (1916).
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