Last time, while discussing the work Ideal City preserved at the National Gallery of the Marche, we addressed the issue of Renaissance perspective.
The invention of perspective represented a true revolution, and in modern times, many artistic movements have drawn from the teachings of Renaissance masters, particularly metaphysical painting. Today, we will talk about Giorgio de Chirico and metaphysical painting.
We are in Paris in the early 20th century, and Giorgio de Chirico, a young man of just twenty-three, begins to experiment with a new painting technique that he will later name Metaphysical.
Metaphysical painting emerges simultaneously with the Futurist movement, but it stands in stark contrast to the latter. The stillness of metaphysical painting opposes the dynamism and speed of Futurism. While Futurism fights for a total renewal of pictorial language, Metaphysics relies on the more traditional tools of painting, particularly perspective.
The Use of Perspective in Metaphysical Painting
Perspective is the tool for representing a three-dimensional view in a two-dimensional image: de Chirico, while experimenting with various spatial solutions, has always considered this science one of the cornerstones of metaphysical work, an essential element of architectural representation.
In de Chirico’s painting, the perspective is almost always deliberately distorted, and the urban scenes, the undisputed protagonists of his paintings, have an elongated and empty appearance. Everything seems frozen, and the absolute silence and absence of any event create an atmosphere filled with nostalgia or melancholy.
The Enigma of Metaphysical Painting
The Red Tower, created in 1913 and preserved at the Guggenheim in Venice, is part of the famous representations of the Italian Squares. It is in the series Italian Squares that the typical themes of de Chirico’s painting recur: infinity, solitude, deserted squares, enigma, and mystery.
In the work The Red Tower, the foreground space is squeezed between the perspectives of two porticos and directs the gaze towards a tower reminiscent of famous Roman funerary monuments. From the portico on the right emerges an equestrian monument, identified with that of Carlo Alberto in Turin. The cleverly concealed references and the barely hinted citations make it impossible to identify the represented location.
The Italian squares surrounded by porticos and classical facades are transformed into sinister empty and silent scenarios. It is precisely this irrational use of perspective that gives de Chirico’s works a dreamlike atmosphere characterized by the lack of a single light source, the elongation of shadows, and the total absence of life.
Discover de Chirico and where to admire his works in exhibitions and museums! Click here!
The Legacy of de Chirico and Metaphysical Painting
Metaphysical painting has been one of the most important artistic movements in the history of modern art. Through a true process of geometric construction, it transformed the everyday into new visions. Objects were assembled and decontextualized, immersed in unpredictable atmospheres and mental visions that transcend reality and reveal a new dimension of the real.
Giorgio de Chirico and metaphysical painting were not only decisive in the birth of Surrealism, but they also influenced generations of artists who, particularly from the 1960s onwards, drew inspiration from the work of the painter from Volos.
This is precisely the theme of the exhibition “Giorgio de Chirico. Return to the Future, Neometaphysics and Contemporary Art”, which has just concluded at the GAM in Turin.
If you have become fascinated by the dystopian scenarios of de Chirico‘s metaphysical views, on Artsupp you can also find the works from the exhibition “Giorgio de Chirico. The Face of Metaphysics” which occupied the spaces of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa until September 1!
