Giorgio de Chirico was born in 1888 in Volos, Greece, the son of Italian parents. Very early in his life, de Chirico became interested in painting, and his brother, Andrea, became a well known painter who used the pseudonym Alberto Savinio. The brothers were always encouraged by their parents in their artistic pursuits, and de Chirico began studying art at the Polytechnic Institute of Athens in 1899.
De Chirico traveled between Italy , Greece and Germany where he was influenced by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhuaer and Frederich Neitzche, whose intellectual ideas rubbed off on the artists' work in high "metaphysical" paintings . Until 1910, de Chirico had painted canvases in a classical, almost symbolist manner, full of mythological imagery, but in 1910, recovering from an illness in Florence, he recognized a disturbing, alienating quality to the long shadows of a piazza in the Autumn afternoon. The resulting painting, "The Enigma Of an Autumn Afternoon" (1912) began the cycle of "metaphysical" works, which sought to rob juxtaposed familiar objects - trains , statues, pillars, mannequins - of their meaning so the viewer was required to bring his own memories and associations to the work. Other works such as "The Uncertainty Of The Poet" (1913) , "The Song Of Love" (1914) and "Gare Montparnasse" (1914) similarly used the empty piazzas and arcades of Turin and Florence as backdrops for de Chirico's twilight world, which is generally regarded as one of the precursors of the Surrealist movement. Renee Magritte cited de Chirico as an influence, and De Chirico was part of the first Surrealist exhibition in 1925.
But when de Chirico abandoned his "metaphysical" painting in 1919 to return to the world of classical painting, Surrealist leader Andre Breton denounced de Chirico, who characterized the Surrealists as "cretinous and hostile people."
De Chirico would eventually return to his ³pittura metafisica² style and rework many of his own earlier works, but his classical works, often painted in the style of artists such as Velazquez and Watteau, also comprised a good deal of his output until his death in 1978.
An excellent site to view these unique works is the Giorgio de Chirico Metaphysical Gallery , a well-designed site featuring "rooms" of his paintings, photos, suggested books, links and more. It's an excellent site.
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