Giorgio de Chirico

Exhibited by Tornabuoni Art

Material Oil on canvas

Dimensions 55 × 35.5 cm

Price $680,000

Status Vetted

About the Work

[In the early decades of the twentieth century,] De Chirico goes a step further. He recognizes that the absence of time also implies the absence of geographic specificity, as suggested by the Platonic term atopos, meaning "without space." The piazza becomes a realm of atopia, devoid not only of time but also of space. Here, images and shadows are motionless, and the epiphany of halted time emerges. Even the smoke from trains or chimneys seems suspended. Perhaps, in the center of the square, we might glimpse the great Kore, Ariadne, the enigma of enigmas. As Nietzsche writes, she is not just the "queen of the labyrinth," but the labyrinth itself: “Oh Ariadne, you yourself are the labyrinth: from you one can no longer get out.” De Chirico describes these as “a crowd of strange, unknown, solitary things that can be translated into painting.” [...]. I believe De Chirico's art to be deeply literary—an art of translation, not only of “strange things”, but also of the great Nietzschean figures. All of his paintings from 1910 to 1913 are, in my view, pictorial translations of Nietzsche's philosophical-poetic figures.

These great squares and figures reappear in the 1930s and again in the 1950s. De Chirico felt Nietzsche's “new song” deep within himself: something that confronts us with a changed world—the “great autumn noontide—the long shadows, the clear light, the clear sky.” This is the same noontide in which “Zarathustra has arrived.” “The great cantor (...) who speaks of the eternal return, whose song sounds like eternity (...). Only with Nietzsche, can it be said that real life has begun. This suggests that the squares from the 1930s are not mere replicas but rather a secret experience De Chirico makes of the eternal return. With Nietzsche, De Chirico realizes he has delved into the world's enigmas, and yet l’énigme reste toujours. The search is unending. Embracing the present moment means embracing its becoming, its transformation, and the new enigmas it continually conceals within itself, shrouded in the secret of a deserted square.

Franco Rella, ''Nel tempo senza tempo', 2020

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Provenance

Galleria d’Arte del Naviglio, Milan.
Galleria Tega, Milan.

Literature

“Giorgio de Chirico. Opere dal 1912 al 1976”, catalogue raisonné, edited by Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, Rome, Maretti Editore, Falciano (RSM), vol. I, 2014, p. 289, no. 299. (different date)
“Reading de Chirico”, exhibition catalogue, edited by Katherine Robinson, Tornabuoni Art, London, Forma Edizioni, Florence, 2017, pp. 78-79.
“Collezione Roberto Casamonti. Dagli inizi del XX secolo agli anni ‘60”, edited by Bruno Corà, Forma Edizioni, Florence, 2018, pp. 54-55.
“Giorgio de Chirico. Il volto della metafisica”, edited by Victoria Noel-Johnson, Skira, Milan, 2019, p. 102, n° 10.
"Peinture et poésie. Ungaretti et l’art de voir’’, exhibition catalogue, Forma Edizioni, Florence, 2023, p. 63.
“Giorgio de Chirico”, Tornabuoni Arte, Rome, 2024, pp. 21, 55.
“Arte moderna e contemporanea. Antologia scelta 2026”, exhibition catalogue, Tornabuoni Arte, Florence, 2025, p. 84.