| The Enigma of the Hour | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Giorgio de Chirico |
| Year | 1910-1911 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 54.6 cm× 71.1 cm(21+1⁄2 in× 28 in) |
| Location | Private collection |
The Enigma of the Hour is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. He created the work during his early period, in Florence, [1] when he focused on metaphysical depictions of town squares and other urban environments. It is not clear whether it was created in 1910 or 1911. [1]
The Enigma depicts an urban scene with the classical architecture and angular lighting that are Chirico's hallmarks. Several figures around the scene have vague features, to give the sense that they are absent. Above the scene is a large clock that reads five minutes to three. [2] Luca Cottini referred to the clock as "...[suggesting] the paradox of an 'eternal present,' located on the edge of a-temporal revelation and moving temporality, and [enacting] the enigma of its nature." [2] Peter G. Toohey has asserted the figure in white represents Odysseus. [3]
In a way, The Enigma of the Hour can be considered the first conceptual artwork; “the artist did not seek to find a new way of rendering that which is visible, as Picasso did, or to express an emotional state through abstract forms and colors as did Kandinsky; rather, de Chirico’s aspiration was to translate a thought or philosophical concept into the forms of the plastic arts”. [4]
Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. His best-known works often feature Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins, trains, and illogical perspective. His imagery reflects his affinity for the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and of Friedrich Nietzsche, and for the mythology of his birthplace.
Post-expressionism is a term coined by the German art critic Franz Roh to describe a variety of movements in the post-war art world which were influenced by expressionism but defined themselves through rejecting its aesthetic. Roh first used the term in an essay in 1925, "Magic Realism: Post-Expressionism", to contrast to Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub's "New Objectivity", which more narrowly characterized these developments within German art. Though Roh saw "post-expressionism" and "magic realism" as synonymous, later critics characterized distinctions between magic realism and other artists initially identified by Hartlaub and have also pointed out other artists in Europe who had different stylistic tendencies but were working within the same trend.
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Carlo Carrà was an Italian painter and a leading figure of the Futurist movement that flourished in Italy during the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to his many paintings, he wrote a number of books concerning art. He taught for many years in the city of Milan.
Metaphysical painting or metaphysical art was a style of painting developed by the Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà. The movement began in 1910 with de Chirico, whose dreamlike works with sharp contrasts of light and shadow often had a vaguely threatening, mysterious quality, "painting that which cannot be seen". De Chirico, his younger brother Alberto Savinio, and Carrà formally established the school and its principles in 1917.
The Nostalgia of the Infinite is a painting by Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, dated of 1911, but most likely painted in 1912-113.
The Song of Love is a 1914 painting by Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is one of the most famous works by Chirico and an early example of his pre-surrealist style, though it was painted ten years before the movement was "founded" by André Breton in 1924.
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Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure) (Italian: La stazione di Montparnasse) is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, from 1914. It is held at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.
The Double Dream of Spring is a painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is held at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.
The Melancholy of Departure is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, from 1916. This painting was created after Chirico returned to Italy from Paris to join the Italian Army in World War I. It is held at the Tate Modern, in London.
Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits is a 1916 painting by Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is one of the earliest editions in a series of works that extended late into Chirico's career.
Metaphysical Interior with Large Factory is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, from 1916. It is part of a series that extended late into de Chirico's career.
The Disquieting Muses is a painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. There are two versions of this painting, the original is in the Gianni Mattioli private collection, in Milan, and the other is at the Pinakothek der Moderne, in Munich.
'The Transformed Dream is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico, from 1913. It is held at the Saint Louis Art Museum, in St. Louis.
Sir Peter Graham Siddell was a New Zealand artist.
Italian Contemporary art refers to painting and sculpture in Italy from the early 20th century onwards.
The Child's Brain is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico. It was completed in 1914 in Italy and is an example of the metaphysical art style. The painting measures 80 by 65 centimeters and is now housed at Moderna Museet, Stockholm. The subject of The Child's Brain is a nude young man, seen from the waist up, who is standing in back of a table with his eyes closed.
Hebdomeros is a 1929 book by Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico. Chirico did not produce any other long-form writing. The book is narrated in the third person and loosely concerns the movement of a man, Hebdomeros, westward. Writing in The Kenyon Review, Alan Burns referred to the text as a "surrealist dream novel".
Giorgio de Chirico: Argonaut of the Soul is a 2010 documentary film produced by EKPOL, co-written and directed by Giorgos Lagdaris and Kostas Anestis. The film attempts to poetically approach the mysterious characteristic of the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico.