exhibition dossier Nature according to De Chirico Nature! We’re surrounded by it and enveloped by it, we can’t get out of it and we can’t get any closer into it. Unsought and without warning, it whirls us into its dance and drags us along with it until we collapse, exhausted, into its arms. It constantly creates new shapes; things that exist now have never existed before; things that existed in the past don’t return. Everything is new yet always old. We live in its midst yet we are strangers to it. It constantly talks to us without ever revealing its secrets. We constantly act on it yet have no power over it... We obey its laws even when we combat them; we cooperate with it even when we claim to be working against it... It has neither a past nor a future; its eternity is the present... You can get no explanation from it, nor reap any benefit from it unless that benefit is freely given... It is a whole, yet never complete. What it does today, it will always be able to do. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • instructions • Giorgio De Chirico • work files metaphysics art and nature nature in De Chirico’s art reflections on nature • examples of nature in philosophy and literature • The Scaffale d’arte suggestions for further reading for adults, for children, websites Le duo, 1914-1915 New York,The Museum of Modern Art, James Thrall Soby Bequest, Acc.n.1213.1979 © 2009. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala,Firenze © Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, Roma by SIAE 2010 1 instructions guide to using this dossier a resource for teachers, parents and professionals The exhibition entitled Nature According to De Chirico provides an opportunity The dossier is designed for everyone for getting to know the great master’s art and for taking a multidisciplinary approach interested in experimenting and in toward working on the theme of Nature that transcends traditional boundaries. finding things out. It offers topics The dossier contains a number of different educational tours which can be developed for discussion and activities. The work in accordance with your class’s needs and adapted to various age groups. files explore key themes with pictures, The dossier can be used both to prepare children for their visit to the exhibition information, quotes and proposals and as a source to prompt further in-depth exploration. for doing things. It is a useful tool We’d love to know what you think of this dossier and the things it offers so please for developing the issues addressed in don’t hesitate to write us at this address: [email protected] the museum either at home or in the classroom. Our goal is to go teaching goals beyond the visit to the exhibition, • group working and interacting with others through telling stories, chatting, describing forging an ongoing relationship and exchanging questions, information, impressions, opinions and feelings; for interaction and debate with schools • building up analytical capability through familiarization with works of art; and families. • fostering the workshop model in art education; • experimenting with the five sense to interpret works of art and the world around us; Per approfondire la nostra metodologia • fostering creativity and the exploration of art in a fun and absorbing way; di lavoro, vi consigliamo: • discovering the links and synergies between different artistic disciplines; C. Francucci e P. Vassalli (a cura di), • fostering the awareness of individual responsibility in safeguarding the environment. Educare all’arte, Electa Milano 2005 C. Francucci e P.Vassalli (a cura di), Educare all’arte. Immagini esperienze percorsi, Electa Milano 2009 Il mattino delle Muse (The Morning of the Muses), 1972 © Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, Roma by SIAE 2010 2 Polytechnic Giorgio de Chirico an institute where people study different arts and sciences, focusing Giorgio de Chirico was born in Vólos, Greece, in 1888. The echoes of classical art on their practical applications often found in his paintings hark back to his Greek origins. He had a passion for drawing Böcklin ever since his early childhood. He studied painting at the Polytechnic in Athens Swiss painter born in 1827 whose and completed his education in Munich, where he saw and was struck by Böcklin’s painting, deeply shrouded in mystery, mysterious, timeless landscapes. His brother Andrea also took to painting at an early age, is peopled with fantastic figures signing his works Alberto Savinio. in classical architectural settings superstitious Giorgio was always on the move. He’s said to have moved house fully 21 times in 25 years, someone who believes that specific and that’s without counting the number of times he stayed in hotels or with relatives kinds of behavior influence future events and friends. He moved from Paris to Florence, to Ferrara and Rome, meteoropath and he move to New York in 1935, staying there for two years. Finally, he returned to Italy someone who’s health and well- and settled down in Rome, in a house on the Piazza di Spagna that is known today being are affected by the weather as the “Giorgio de Chirico House Museum”. hypochondriac someone unreasonably or unjustifiably In 1910 he painted the picture that launched metaphysical painting, the Enigma of an Autumn worried about their own health Afternoon, in which he depicts a vision that he had on an autumn afternoon while sitting egocentric in the middle of Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. Everything he saw around him looked someone interested only in themselves mysterious and unusual, as though it were all brand new: it was the metaphysical aspect and uninterested in others, of things. «That was when I got the bizarre impression that I was seeing all of these things who see themselves as being for the first time, and the painting’s composition revealed itself to my mind’s eye. the center of everything Now, every time I look at the picture, I relive that moment. Yet the moment is still an enigma Pictor Optimus for me because it’s impossible to explain. So I decided to call the work of art that in Latin, pictor means painter it spawned an enigma too». and optimus means excellent, ideal or exquisite. The title was an attempt by De Chirico to highlight his mastery of painting Autoritratto con rosa (Self-Portrait with a Rose), 1923 Collezione privata, Courtesy Claudia Gian Ferrari, Milano © Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, Roma by SIAE 2010 3 Something of an eccentric, he took great pleasure in highlighting his own failings and phobias. He was melancholy and superstitious,a meteoropath and a hypochondriac, egocentric and vain. He considered himself to be the greatest painter of all time, which was why he signed his works Pictor Optimus. He claimed to have exceptional skills such as the ability to see inside objects, almost as though he had x-ray vision, and to have had had revelations and premonitions in his dreams. In one interview he said: «For instance, I’m phosphorescent. I’m not joking… I can see my hand in the dark. In any case, the more time goes by, the more I realize what an extraordinary man I am». It was quite a feat to wring the truth out of him because he was always ready to tease you. «He says one thing and the next minute he denies ever having said it; he says something and, if he then sees it in print, he takes it back out of sheer bloody-mindedness. He pretends not to know the answer to questions you ask him, or if he does answer, he does everything in his power to deceive his interlocutor».1 He adopted the same enigmatic approach to painting as he did to building his own image. This filibustering nature was to emerge more strongly than ever when, on reaching the age of 30, he stopped painting the way he’d painted so far. He drew close to the old masters, exploring the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. His style changed in 1919 and the critics didn’t approve. «Good heavens, how tedious you are! The metaphysical period, the metaphysical period… One would think that this blessed metaphysical period is all-important…! I have painted in two different ways: I’ve painted metaphysical pictures and realistic pictures. There was no need for me to add metaphysical content to the realistic pictures, and there was no reason for me to add realistic content to the metaphysical pictures. It’s like a man working with two hands, his left and his right. In any case, I produced metaphysical pictures before going to Paris, others when I was in Paris, and yet more when I got back to Italy, and if you really want to know, I’m still producing them. It’s not a crime, I hardly think you’re going to report me to the police over it!»2 At the end of World War II his early works began to fetch stratospheric prices. Unfortunately, however, the master no longer owned any so he began to copy his own style, replicating numerous works from his youth. For instance, there are fully 18 known versions of his Disquieting Muses. He even started backdating the copies, forging the date they were painted. Numerous personal exhibitions were devoted to his work in the 1960’s and his work 1 L.Spagnoli, Lunga vita was popular both in Italy and abroad. He continued to work on his favorite themes, di Giorgio De Chirico, 1971 revisiting them with only minor variations, until he passed away in Rome in 1978, 2 L.Spagnoli, Op.