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Giorgio de Chirico
- Apr 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 19
Biography and Formation
Giorgio de Chirico was born in 1888 in Volos, Greece. In his youth he attended a drawing course at the Athens Polytechnic School and subsequently, from 1906 to 1908, studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich.
During these formative years he came into contact with German philosophy and Symbolist painting. From 1910 onwards, his reading of Nietzsche inspired him to create his first self-portraits and metaphysical landscapes.
Paris and the Development of Pittura Metafisica
Between 1911 and 1915 he settled and worked in Paris, exhibiting at the various annual Salons and engaging with the leading avant-garde circles of the period.
During these years he developed the language that would make him internationally renowned: deserted squares, classical architecture, elongated shadows, mannequins and ordinary objects transformed into enigmatic presences.
His paintings were charged with an atmosphere of suspended melancholy and mysterious expectation that would profoundly influence twentieth-century art.
Ferrara and Valori Plastici
During the First World War he was admitted to the military hospital in Ferrara, where he encountered Carlo Carrà and Filippo De Pisis. The Ferrara period proved fundamental to the further development of pittura metafisica.
At the close of the conflict he moved to Rome and participated in the exhibitions of Valori Plastici. His first solo exhibition dates from 1919.
During the 1920s he gradually adopted a more classical style, reviving techniques borrowed from the Old Masters, including glazes and tempera.
Return to Paris and Classical Themes
Between 1924 and 1929 the artist lived once again in Paris. In 1926 he aligned himself with the Novecento movement, in marked opposition to modernism — a choice that drew considerable criticism and distanced him from many former artistic relationships.
De Chirico explored the theme of the double in canvases where he depicted himself alongside his mother, his brother or mirrors. He also painted figures from Greek mythology, portraits and horses, and composed still lifes he termed vite silenziose.
He took evident pleasure in confounding the interpretation of his own art, cultivating around himself an aura of enigma that would become one of his defining characteristics.
Literary Activity and International Influence
Giorgio de Chirico illustrated works by several authors, including Apollinaire, Cocteau and Éluard, designed sets and costumes for the theatre and opera, and wrote novels and short prose.
Artists such as Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí and René Magritte openly acknowledged the profound influence he exercised upon them.
His pittura metafisica was one of the decisive foundations for the emergence of Surrealism.
Final Years and Legacy
Giorgio de Chirico died in Rome in 1978.
Today he is recognised as one of the major figures of twentieth-century European art. His ability to transform ordinary space into mental vision and reality into enigma continues to resonate with artists, scholars and collectors worldwide.
