Metaphysical art:: Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)

 Throughout his life de Chirico lived in Greece, Italy, Germany and France. In his work the most influential themes seems to be the recurrence of classical Greek sculptures. The heads torso and even building of Greek civilisation show up in his works. De Chirico paints with many reoccurrences of the same building from different perspective. No doubt this is his own developed style. The buildings are repeatedly painted in various pieces as thought the artist is painting his dreams much like that of recurring dream. This may have been influenced by the popularity and the rise of psychology theorises, as Freudian interpretation were highly influential in avant-garde movement such as Surrealism and Metaphysical art. When analysing this painting we cannot help but read it like a dream because we know it is a surrealist painting and the theories surrounding surrealism are mainly connected with dreams and Freudian analysis. However, one philosopher de Chirico showed interest in and read often was Friedrich Nietzsche, during his time the German city of Munich he read Nietzsche’s philosophy but de Chirico’s art does not show any signs of influence from the philosopher nor does it show any influences from Freudian theories that much of Surrealist artist such as Salvador Dali have shown in their work.

This new style of painting now known as Metaphysical painting that was developed by de Chirico and Carlo Carra whom he met during his stay in Ferrera from 1915 to 1918, the main idea was to use dream-like painting and with the use of various images and figures. This was one of the first paintings to break away from the traditional or even modern paintings that gave birth to the art of Surrealism. Evidently, the Surrealist leader Andre Breton was not a fan of the new Italian movement that was now breaking away from the ideas of Surrealism, this lead him to cancel de Chirico’s membership because he believed he was abandoning the ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’ which Breton wrote himself at the formation of the Surrealism movement in October 1924.

When looking at the piece I saw that a female torso is twisted from the waist up with no arms nor any legs and on the side right the torso was a bunch of bananas. The figure is placed in unrealistic scenery with a large building and unrefined composition. The shape of the building is rather symmetrical and is stretched along the canvas. A train is seen passing afar from the main figures. The dreamlike state is emphasised by the surreal figure of the torso, the train and bananas close to the suspicious dark colonnade stretched out magnificently through the painting. The torso was identified, as Aphrodite the classical Greek goddess of love also knows as Venus in classical Roman literature. When looking at the central figure that is the torso we immediately think of classical Greek and antiquity, the ideal body that was often used in renaissance art. It could be suggested that the artist used the figure as a reminder for his trans-European background. His knowledge of a wider European culture and history is seen in his art as he was born in Greece and travelled to Venice, Florence, Turin and Milan and studied art in Munich for three years. The antiquity style such as the statuesque figure are in connection with his parents background as they lived in Greece before the death of their father in 1906 , the renaissance architectural style is very similar to the small Italian town of Turin, he showed this in some of his paintings as he was becoming more interested in the architecture of Italian towns. The influence over his art is very clear and the element of nostalgia can be seen with the composition he uses within the spacious dreamscape and the Greco-Roman figures and buildings.

 The train that is a recurring aspect of his painting is one of the most significant nostalgic object, the train is a representation of Giorgio’s father who was a train engineer during the time they had lived in Greece. The recurrence of this train in his work maybe because he was unable to let go of his father’s death and because of this situation in the young artist life he constantly attached his painting with themes of the distant train and the surrounding reminder of his life when he had complete family in Greece. The train in The uncertainty of the poet is seen passing from right to left, the torso in the foreground is facing away from the background as it is twisted to face the viewer although there is no head for the spectator to look at. The body on its own is the focal point of the painting in conjunction with the mysterious building and the questionable bananas still attached to their branch. As usually the solemn and rather mute colours are a way to activate the artist emotional state of mind, he may have felt easier expressing his feeling through his paintings. He used dark colours to trigger the emotional outburst that is his bereavement with the loss of his father.  The colour he used for the statue figure is a pale mix to complement the shape of the female figured statue, he used dark colours to outline slightly and give a darker shade where light falls to create shadow. The use of crosshatching technique is particularly noticeable in this painting, along with the matt dark grey coloured colonnade and equally glum blue sky is contrasted together to create the overall muteness of the painting. Moreover, the bananas seem to be the only aspect of the painting close to a realistic representation of the object by the colour the artist used and the way the bananas have been positioned still in their natural habitation simply laid there  beside the torso with their branch.

The metaphysical painter did not have a manifesto like the surrealist followed, for the metaphysical artist their art did not need explanation or reason because it was simply art on its own ground and the foundational base was that the artist must be able to create his work with total freedom and without any constructed or excessive planning of their painting. Giorgio de Chirico in the past declared that ‘If a work of art is to be truly immortal, it must pass quite beyond the limits of the human world, without any sign of common sense and logic. In this way the work will draw nearer to dream and to the mind of a child’. De Chirico’s idea of an art work in terms of surrealism or metaphysical is that the artist must be able to turn his conscience off and allow his body to create a sense of free hand to draw and paint their imagination despite the fact that this technique did not work similarly to the Surrealist technique of ‘free association’. The painting does triggers certain feelings of insomnia and a nostalgic dreamlike state of mind.

The subtle colours emphasis the melancholy of the painting as much as the overall surreal surrounding. The aspect of metaphysical painting is the technique used to juxtapose images only with paintings unlike previous artist from the movement of Dada and surrealism that used newspaper cutting and other material to create a juxtaposed piece. In many of Chirico’s painting especially those after of the metaphysical period he used juxtaposition of various figure and objects to create a fresh metaphysical art that inspired many artist that established after him. The recurrences of the train and the magnificent building were still prominent in his art as he progressed and showed a different perspective of his art. What de Chirico and other metaphysical artist painted was not praised by many surrealist. In the beginning of de Chirico’s metaphysical period the poet Guillaume Apollinaire praised de Chirico during his exhibition in Paris in 1913 for the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne, Picasso had also taken notice of the artist style during this exhibition, in this exhibition he sold one of his work that was well appreciated  Apollinaire was helping with the advancement of Chirico in Paris by helping meet art dealer such as Paul Guillame and there he sealed his  deal with the art dealer that which made his break in the art world easier.