n. 5/6 (2006)

“We work in the most complicated art, the most difficult and tiring art there is: painting; an art in which one must do everything oneself, especially today; everything must be created from scratch; therefore I am firmly convinced that now, more than in any other epoch, that in this profession, one must think deeply of the material substance we use […]. This is what I think of tempera. I have tried to express myself clearly and briefly, and, above all, I wanted this preliminary discourse of mine to be persuasive; hence I have entitled it in Latin: oratio…”

Giorgio de Chirico
Pro tempera oratio, 1920

(For text illustrations, please consult the Italian version of the essay).