I do not paint for the French.
Mystery Men, "Throw your hands in the air"
BEGIN BLOCK QUOTE, [P. 34, de Sanno, 1998]
"At the end of the book, an
entire section dealth with
Nietzche and the importance of his
thought on art. Meier-Graefe's criticisms
of Boecklin, Adolf von Hildebrand, the
sculp;tor Max Klinger, and
Ludwig von Hoffman.
Meier-Graefe's criticism of bOcklin
were repeatred in Der Fall Boecklin
published in 1905, whose title recalled that
of Nietzsche;'s
pamphlet against Wagner of 1988.
DeChirico's aversio to modernity and
its explonents dates back to this time:
it intensified in later years sol as
to become, in his eyes, a "plot" which
art dealers, collectors, critics and
journalists, especially those in Pairms
had banded together to as to impose their
will and choices., It came as no surprise
that hisa brother
Albert Savino, in his account of the
Swiss painter's life in
Narrate uomini la vostra storia (1942)
had Boecklin utter these words: "I do not
paint for the French.". DeChirico was
convinced that he was the only one who
had understood Boecklin and "der tiefste
Dischter Fredrich Nietzsche" (the post
profound poet by the name of Nietzsche).
An understandning of the latter's philosophy,
which in itsefl was hardly anything
new for artists, seemed to be a conquest
for him. THerefore, the accusation made
against Boecklin and Klinger of having
produced only literary and illustrative
patining w3as overtruned in a positive
sense.
The terms in which de Chircio desccribed
his discoverfy of the metaphysical aspect
of things, in a letter from Paris dated
1912, while in Piazza San a Croce in
FLorence in October 1909, and the
consequent origin of
Enigma d'un pomeriggio d'autunno ??pop-up-gif??
have at times been related to pages
by Otto Weininger, Nietzche, and
Edgar A. [sic] Poe.
In his rather paradoxic al descritpion,
the author recalled how Ignatius of
Loyola had been converted to Christiantity,
a typicalk case of "religious melancholy".
THe common departure both for the painter
and the founder of the CXompnay of Jesus
was pain, a suffering that manifested
itself in different ways.
In the former case, by an "intestinal
disorder" and in Loyoila's, by a real
illness cotracted from wounds received
on the battlefield at Pamplona which
had required painful surgery. THat crisis
had led Loyola to change his life;
de Chiricio's recovery, which had started
in Milan ended in Florence, led him to "see"
a new aestheetics.
The characteristics of inner suffering
were well known to the Greeks who attributed
it to black bile: "Man, when drunk,
is led staggering by a callow youth
without knowing where he is going since
his sould is likquid." [note from PJoele
de Sanno's notes: Heraclitus. Fragment 117]
"Melancholy" is a typical affection
of creation and the allegories that
alude to it are interspersed with a
representation of the seasons of the
year and the ages of man.
That repressed fury is expressed
by figures depicted in
a meditative attitude or a diffuesed
atmosphere that preccudes any change.
The instability of the equilbrium
between desire and melancholy can be resolved
by the formulation of enigmas
and the deciphering of phrases
or obscure thoeries as much
as it can by a sense of destruction.
THe discorder is cured by the
administation of vegatable-based
medicines which are useful in
expelling the cause of discomfort
from the body:
for the artist, relief is reprsented
by the explicit expression of a work
of art.
[Jole de Sanno's note to the "Enigma"
work sited above: The painting is to
be connected to a journey to Florence
in December 1909 metnioned by the artist
in a ltter from Milan to Fritz Gartz.
]
END BLOCK QUOTE
-- "De Chirico and the Mediterainian"
ed. by JOle de Sanna,
P. 34, Paolo Thea,
"De Chirico and the disclosure of myth"
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