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           [Sur-realism]
             [Art Movements]

           QUOTES, and study materiasls

Giorgio de Chirico





Chronology

Important Works


Quotes and Study Materials

 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"