Essay by Errin Copple, Assistant Editor, Class of 2005

The landscape of Piazza d'Italia was drawn from Giorgio de Chirico's second metaphysical Italian city of inspiration, Turin. Turin was important to de Chirico because of its close association with Nietzsche-it was the city Nietzsche loved and the place in which the philosopher suffered from madness the year of de Chirico's birth. The geometry of the streets, piazzas and porticos provided ample space for the young artist's imagination.

The piazza, a metaphysical blend of reality, stands nearly vacant, and long shadows fall at uneven angles. A frozen tableau is again created by the motionless train and the calculated geometry of the archways and columned portico. The insertion of a lone figure, however, adds a new dimension to the scene, raising feelings of isolation for the observer. Within the piece, such elements lead to questions of the enigma of life and the purpose of human existence (De Sanna 68). This inhabitant appears restricted to the limits of the physical world except in his mind.

Striking parallels can be seen between the dream world of Metaphysical art and that of the Surrealists, and indeed de Chirico was considered at the time to be the Father of Surrealism with Guillaume Apollinaire (web gallery 156) first calling his work surréel in 1917 (De Sanna 280). De Chrico was greatly admired by many of the Surrealists, even considered an inspiration for their works. He joined the group in 1922 at the insistence of its leader, André Breton. However, de Chirico's work by this time had begun to change. He has always professed a wish to return to classicism, often studying and copying works of that period and the Renaissance. The Surrealists considered his new style of painting inferior, and Breton referred to him as a lost genius in a magazine article published in 1926 (De Sanna 282). This last act completed his ultimate break with the group and caused him thereafter to vehemently reject the title Father of Surrealism, refusing to acknowledge any artistic connection.

A master at creating dreamlike yet realistic scenes, it is de Chirico's deserted cityscapes, frozen in time, for which he is best remembered. Believing that art should be purged of the familar and commonplace, he once wrote, "A really immmortal work of art can only be produced by means of a revelation" (qtd. in De Sanna 66). It is clearly such revelation which has inspired these important works.