Three of a Kind: Giorgio de Chirico — 1
Daily Appreciation
Giorgio de Chirico
Ahead of this spring’s Impressionist and Modern Art and Collection Particulière Italienne sales, we take a closer look at three of Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings, which invite you to enter into the mysterious, dreamlike and poetic universe of the Italian artist.
The BAM — Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mons is currently (until June 2) hosting an exhibition dedicated to Chirico and the Belgian surrealist movement. It reminds us of the importance of the artist through 40 works, and his influence on three major figures in Belgian surrealism: René Magritte, Paul Delvaux and Jane Graverol.
1. Giorgio de Chirico, Il vaticinatore. Estimate €250,000–350,000
Il vaticinatore is a remarkable example of one of Chirico’s most intriguing themes: the fortune teller.
In this painting, Chirico clearly identifies with the character of the fortune teller by placing this character in front of the easel. It is not simply to do with an image inside an image, a recurring motif in art history. Chirico also draws our attention to the artist’s creative process and invites the viewer to contemplate the genesis of the artwork as a melting pot of memory, inspiration and premonition. He links the painting to the prophecies of a fortune teller: we must go beyond the blank canvas. Furthermore, the idea of searching for an object’s double meaning is at the heart of the surrealists’ mission.
This figure is joined by other protagonists from De Chirico’s world: the empty square, the red tower and the ominous shade of an invisible statue.
The painting can be considered as a sort of celebration of perspective, or rather, a parody of it. In fact, the more rational perspective, created by the plan of the arcade on the black board, contrasts with and accentuates the vertiginous quality of the orthogonal lines of the piazza, which seem to tilt the fortune teller and the easel into the foreground
#Daily Appreciation
#Art
#contemporary art
#Giorgio de Chirico
