{"id":2915,"date":"2019-06-20T09:39:41","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T09:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fondazionedechirico.org\/?page_id=2915"},"modified":"2024-12-18T15:06:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T15:06:12","slug":"giorgio-de-chirico","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fondazionedechirico.org\/en\/giorgio-de-chirico\/","title":{"rendered":"Giorgio de Chirico"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” disabled_on=”on|on|off” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_color=”#f2f2f2″ custom_padding=”20%||||false|false” custom_padding_tablet=”||||false|false” custom_padding_phone=”” custom_css_main_element=”position: fixed;||width: 20%;||top: 80px;||left: 0;||height: 100%;||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row custom_padding_last_edited=”on|desktop” disabled_on=”on|off|off” _builder_version=”4.16″ background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” width=”100%” max_width=”100%” custom_margin=”|||” custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding=”|10%||10%” custom_padding_tablet=”|0%||0%||true” custom_padding_phone=”” use_custom_width=”on” width_unit=”off” custom_width_percent=”100%” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_button button_url=”#biografia” button_text=”Biography” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_css_main_element=”display: block !important;” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_button button_url=”#opere” button_text=”Artwork” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_css_main_element=”display: block !important;” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_button button_url=”#scritti” button_text=”Written Work” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_css_main_element=”display: block !important;” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_button button_url=”#interviste” button_text=”Interviews” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_css_main_element=”display: block !important;” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_button button_url=”#bibliografia” button_text=”Bibliography” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_css_main_element=”display: block !important;” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” module_id=”biografia” _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”|||20%” custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”|||0px” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=”Biography” text_orientation=”center” admin_label=”Intestazione Biografia” _builder_version=”4.16″ title_font=”|700|||||||” title_font_size=”60px” background_image=”http:\/\/fondazionedechirico.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/BIo_23-Sulla-terrazza-di-Piazza-di-Spagna-e1553514438146.jpg” background_position=”top_center” custom_padding=”200px||200px|” text_shadow_style=”preset3″ text_shadow_color=”#000000″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_margin=”|||20%” custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”|||0px” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_toggle title=”Childhood and education: Greece-Munich-Milano 1888-1909″ admin_label=”Infanzia e studi: Grecia-Monaco di Baviera-Milano 1888-1909 Toggle” _builder_version=”4.16″ title_font_size=”18″ global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n

Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico was born on 10 July 1888 in Volos, Greece, to Italian parents. His father Evaristo came from a noble family of Sicilian origin and was a railway engineer in charge of the construction of the Thessaly railway. His mother Gemma Cervetto came from a family of Genovese origin. In 1891, his elder sister Adelaide died. In August, his brother Andrea (who changed his name to Alberto Savinio in 1914) was born in Athens. In 1896, the family returned to Volos where they stayed until 1899 and where Giorgio took his first drawing lessons. They returned to the capital where Giorgio attended the Athens Polytechnic form 1903-1906. After several years of ill health, his father died in May 1905 at the age of 62. In September 1906, his mother decided to leave Greece with her sons. After two short stopovers in Venice and Milan, the family settled in Munich where Giorgio attended the Academy of Fine Arts whilst Andrea studied music. Giorgio studied the art of Arnold B\u00f6cklin and Max Klinger, and read the works of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Weininger with great interest. In June 1909, he joined his mother and brother in Milan. He painted B\u00f6cklin-inspired paintings during this period. He suffered from severe intestinal illness brought about by the death of his father.<\/p>\n

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In March 1910, the family moved to Florence where their paternal aunt and uncle lived. As de Chirico would later write in his\u00a0Memoirs<\/em>: \u201cMy health grew worse in Florence. Sometimes I painted small canvases. The B\u00f6cklin period had passed and I had begun to paint subjects in which I tried to express the strong and mysterious feeling I had discovered in Nietzsche\u2019s writings: the melancholy of beautiful autumn afternoons in Italian cities\u201d. He painted his first metaphysical painting entitled\u00a0The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon<\/em>, inspired by a vision he had in Piazza Santa Croce. Prior to this painting, he executed\u00a0The Enigma of the Oracle\u00a0<\/em>and later,\u00a0The Enigma of the Hour\u00a0<\/em>as well as the famous self-portrait inscribed with the Nietszchean epigraph \u201cEt quid amabo nisi quod aenigma est?\u201d (And what shall I love, if not that which is enigma?). On 14 July 1911, he arrived in Paris, where he developed the Italian Piazza theme. In the autumn of 1912, he showed his work for the first time at Salon d\u2019Automne. In March 1913, he exhibited at Salon des Ind\u00e9pendants. Picasso and Apollinaire took notice of his work. Apollinaire, who greatly admired his paintings, wrote a review of the exhibition the artist held in his studio in October in \u201cL\u2019Intransigeant\u201d. He defined de Chirico as \u201cthe most surprising painter of the young generation\u201d. In January 1914, the two began to collaborate with one another as seen in the artist\u2019s letters to the poet. De Chirico introduced his brother Savinio to Apollinaire at the end of January. The two attended\u00a0Les Soir\u00e9es de Paris\u00a0<\/em>together. He met Paul Guillaume, his first dealer, as well as Ardengo Soffici, Constantin Brancusi, Max Jacob and Andr\u00e9 Derain. He painted his well-known\u00a0Portrait of Apollinaire<\/em>; the following year the poet dedicated the poem\u00a0Oc\u00e9an de Terre\u00a0<\/em>to him. He started work on the Mannequin theme. In May 1915, de Chirico and Savinio returned to Italy to report to the military authorities in Florence and were sent to Ferrara. De Chirico, assigned to non-combat duty, remained in Ferrara where he painted the first works on the Metaphysical Interior theme. During the same period, he painted\u00a0The Great Metaphysician<\/em>,\u00a0Hector and Andromache<\/em>,\u00a0The Troubadour\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The Disquieting Muses<\/em>. In 1916, he met Filippo de Pisis who was just 20 years old at the time. In 1917, he spent a few months at the Villa del Seminario military hospital for nervous disorders where Carlo Carr\u00e0 had also been admitted. He came into contact with the Dada circle of Tristan Tzara and the magazine \u201cDada 2\u201d. He remained in touch with the Parisian milieu and continued to send his artwork to Paul Guillaume, who held an innovative exhibition on 3 November 1918 presenting the artist\u2019s paintings on-stage at Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Vieux-Colombier accompanied by an introductory text. Apollinaire passed away on 9 November 1918. The essay\u00a0Zeusi l\u2019esploratore\u00a0<\/em>came out in the first issue of \u201cValori Plastici\u201d, dedicated to the magazine\u2019s founder Mario Broglio. In the essay, he proclaimed: \u201cIt is necessary to discover the demon in all things. [\u2026] It is necessary to discover the eye in all things. [\u2026] We are explorers ready for new departures\u201d.<\/div>\n

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De Chirico moved to Rome on 1 January 1919, from where he kept up an intense correspondence with his fianc\u00e9e Antonia Bolognesi, whom he met in the autumn of 1917 in Ferrara and intended to marry. The relationship came to an end in December 1919. In February, he held his first solo show at Casa d\u2019Arte Bragaglia in Rome. His essay entitled\u00a0Noi Metafisici\u00a0<\/em>was published in \u201cCronache d\u2019Attualit\u00e0\u201d in which he wrote: \u201cSchopenhauer and Nietzsche were the first to teach the profound importance of the non-sense of life and how such non-sense can be transferred to Art [\u2026]. The capable and new craftsmen are philosophers who have surpassed philosophy\u201d. During this period, his interest in the work of the Great Masters intensified. He became a frequent visitor of museums in Rome and Florence, executing a number of\u00a0pastiches\u00a0<\/em>of works of the Italian Masters. He studied tempera and panel painting techniques in Florence. In 1921, he held a solo show at Galleria Arte in Milan. He began corresponding with Andr\u00e9 Breton the same year. He published articles on Raphael, B\u00f6cklin, Klinger, Previati, Renoir, Gauguin and Morandi in various periodicals. In 1922, an important exhibition of his work was held at Galerie Paul Guillaume in Paris which included 55 works. Breton wrote the introduction to the accompanying catalogue. In 1923, Paul \u00c9luard and his wife Gala visited de Chirico whilst in Rome for the II Roman Biennial and purchased several of his paintings. He participated in the XIV Venice Biennial. During 1924 in Rome, he met his wife-to-be, the Russian ballerina and future archaeologist Raissa Gourevitch Krol. At the end of the year in Paris he designed the stage sets and costumes for Pirandello\u2019s\u00a0La Giara\u00a0<\/em>with music by Alfredo Casella for the Swedish Ballet Company.\u00a0R\u00eave\u00a0<\/em>was published in the first issue of \u201cLa R\u00e9volution Surr\u00e9aliste\u201d, whilst he was immortalised by Man Ray in a famous group portrait. He settled permanently in the French capital in 1925.<\/div>\n

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He began work on the Metaphysics of Light and Mediterranean Myth themes, creating subject matter such as the Archaeologists, Horses by the Seashore, Trophies, Landscapes in a Room, Furniture in the Valley and the Gladiators. Following a solo show at Galerie L\u00e9once Rosenberg, his recent work was heavily criticised by the Surrealists. By this time, his rupture with the group was definitive and destined to worsen in the years to come. De Chirico made the acquaintance of Albert C. Barnes, who would become an avid patron of his work. In 1928, Jean Cocteau\u2019s\u00a0Le Myst\u00e8re La\u00efc \u2013 Essai d\u2019\u00e9tude indirecte\u00a0<\/em>was published with lithographs by the artist and\u00a0Piccolo Trattato di Tecnica Pittorica\u00a0<\/em>[Breif treatise on Painting Technique] was published by Scheiwiller. In 1929, Pierre Levy\u2019s \u00c9ditions du Carrefour published\u00a0Hebdomeros, le peintre et son g\u00e9nie chez l\u2019\u00e9crivain\u00a0<\/em>[The Painter and his Genius as a Writer]. He designed the costumes for\u00a0Le Bal\u00a0<\/em>produced by Serge Diaghilev\u2019s Ballets Russes (Monte Carlo, Paris and London). He exhibited in Italy and abroad (Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, London and New York). During this period, he painted still lifes, portraits and female nudes of a luminous naturalism. Gallimard published Apollinaire\u2019s\u00a0Calligrammes\u00a0<\/em>illustrated with 66 lithographs by the artist, in which the Sun on the Easel theme first appeared. He married Raissa on 3 February 1930 when their relationship was already in difficulty. In the autumn, he met Isabella Pakszwer (later known as Isabella Far) who became his second wife and remained his life-long companion. His break-up with Raissa was complete by late 1931. De Chirico and Isabella moved to Florence where they stayed for a year. He exhibited at the XVIII Venice Biennial in the gallery dedicated to Italian artists in Paris. In 1933, he participated in Milan\u2019s V Triennial for which he painted the monumental fresco\u00a0La cultura italiana<\/em>. He continued his work for the theatre, creating the set designs and costumes for\u00a0I Puritani\u00a0<\/em>by Bellini for I Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1933) and the set designs for D\u2019Annunzio\u2019s\u00a0La figlia di Jorio\u00a0<\/em>directed by Pirandello at Rome\u2019s Teatro Argentina. In 1934, he illustrated Cocteau\u2019s\u00a0Mythologie\u00a0<\/em>with ten lithographs on the Mysterious Baths theme. He participated in the II Roman Quadrennial with 45 paintings of which seven from this new theme.<\/div>\n

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In August 1936, he went to New York where he exhibited his recent work at the Julien Levy Gallery. A number of paintings were bought by Albert C. Barnes for his museum as well as by other art collectors. The artist collaborated with magazines such as \u201cVogue\u201d and \u201cHarper\u2019s Bazaar\u201d. He also executed a mural entitled\u00a0Petronius and the Modern-day Adonis in Tails\u00a0<\/em>for the tailor Scheiner and decorated a wall at Helena Rubinstein\u2019s beauty institute. He designed a dining room for Decorators Picture Gallery, in an initiative in which Picasso and Matisse also participated. In June 1937, he received news from his brother of their mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

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In January 1938, he returned to Italy and settled in Milan, before leaving for Paris, outraged by Italy\u2019s racial laws. He exhibited in Rome\u2019s III Quadrennial d\u2019Arte Nazionale. During the war, a Florentine antiquarian and friend, Luigi Bellini, hosted de Chirico and Isabella, who was a Russian Jew born in Warsaw. He began creating terracotta sculptures:\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Archaeologists<\/em>,\u00a0Hector and Andromache<\/em>,\u00a0Hippolytus and his Horse\u00a0<\/em>and a\u00a0Piet\u00e0<\/em>. He published\u00a0Il Signor Dudron\u00a0<\/em>in \u201cProspettive\u201d and an essay on sculpture\u00a0Brevis Pro Plastica Oratio\u00a0<\/em>in \u201cAria d\u2019Italia\u201d. In 1941, James Thrall Soby published\u00a0The Early Chirico<\/em>.\u00a0Hebdomeros\u00a0<\/em>was published in Italian translation by the artist in 1942. He wrote a number of critical\/theoretical articles for various periodicals, which were later included in\u00a0Commedia dell\u2019arte moderna\u00a0<\/em>(Rome 1945) with essays from the \u201cValori Plastici\u201d period. In 1944, he settled permanently in Rome. Irving Penn photographed the artist with a laurel crown in a celebrative and ironic pose. In 1945, he published the autobiographies:\u00a0Memorie della mia vita\u00a0<\/em>[The Memoirs of Giorgio de Chirico] and\u00a01918-1925 \u2013 Ricordi di Roma<\/em>. He intensified research on the great masters and executed a number of\u00a0pastiches\u00a0<\/em>of paintings by Rubens, Delacroix, Titian, Watteau, Fragonard and Courbet. He began a fierce battle against the falsification of his painting, which had begun in the mid-1920s. On 18 May 1946, he married Isabella Pakszwer. In June 1946, the Parisian Galerie Allard organised, with Breton\u2019s approval, a de Chirico show containing 20 fake metaphysical works by the Surrealist painter Oscar Dominguez.<\/div>\n

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In 1947, he set up studio in an apartment located at 31 Piazza di Spagna, where moved the following year and spent the rest of his life. At the end of 1948, he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Society of British Artists. In 1949, he held a solo show with the prestigious society. In 1950, as an act of protest to the Venice Biennial where a \u201cformidable fake\u201d had been exhibited two years earlier and the prize for Metaphysical Painting had been awarded Giorgio Morandi, he organised an \u201cAnti-Biennial\u201d, exhibiting his work with other \u201canti-modern\u201d artists at Venice\u2019s Bucintoro Rowing Club. Similar shows took place in 1952 and 1954. On 5 May 1952, Alberto Savinio died in Rome. He illustrated Manzoni\u2019s\u00a0The Betrothed\u00a0<\/em>in 1965 and Quasimodo\u2019s translation of\u00a0The Iliad\u00a0<\/em>in 1968. At the end of the 1960s, he began to cast bronze sculptures.<\/div>\n

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The 80-year-old artist could work freely once more following a period in which his time had been occupied with filling art commission contracts. He began a phase of research known as Neometaphysical Art, in which he re-elaborated subject matter from his painting and graphic work of the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. Subjects such as the Mannequin, the Troubadour, the Archaeologists, the Gladiators, the Mysterious Baths and the Sun on the Easel were interpreted in a different light with brighter colours and serene atmospheres compared to the disquieting mood seen in his early metaphysical period. With profound poetry, new combinations of subjects appeared within the innovative spatial compositions such as the Italian Piazza and the Metaphysical Interior, newly inhabited by mythological characters such as Minerva and Mercury. In 1970, an important retrospective of the artist\u2019s work was held at Palazzo Reale in Milan. In 1971, Claudio Bruni Sakraischik began publishing the\u00a0Catalogo generale di Giorgio de Chirico<\/em>\u00a0[Catalogue of Works]. The following year,\u00a0De Chirico by de Chirico\u00a0<\/em>was held at the New York Cultural Center including 182 works from the artist\u2019s collection including paintings, drawings, sculptures and lithographs. De Chirico travelled to New York for the occasion. In 1973, he created the\u00a0Mysterious Baths Fountain\u00a0<\/em>in Milan\u2019s Sempione Park for the XV Triennial. The same year, he travelled to Greece where the documentary,\u00a0Il mistero dell\u2019infinito\u00a0<\/em>was filmed for RAI television. In November 1974, he was elected to the Academy of France. On 20 November 1978, Giorgio de Chirico died in Rome at 90 years of age. In 1992, his remains were transferred to the San Francesco a Ripa church, located in the Trastevere quarter of Rome.<\/div>\n

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