In De Chirico’s
paintings of this period, the colours are brighter and assume a mysterious
significance within enigmatic landscapes and interiors. He believed symbols of
a superior reality are often to be seen in geometric forms, that is why he used
the geometric shapes of triangles, and squares. He believed the triangle is
a mystical and magical symbol, and that it awakens a sense of uneasiness
and even fear in the onlooker. Chirico believed the square as a similar
symbolic and vital pictorial element: “The square has always obsessed my mind.
I always saw squares rising like mysterious stars behind every one of my
pictorial representations.”
De Chirico was
impressed by the appearance of Ferrara, one of the most beautiful cities in
Italy. What struck him most of all and inspired him on the metaphysical side,
were certain aspects of Ferrara interiors, certain windows, shops, houses,
districts, such as the ancient ghetto, where you could find certain sweets and
biscuits with remarkable metaphysical and strange shapes.
The large building in
this painting represents vivid and emotional experiences that greatly
affected him during this period—the army, his health, and the injustices of
war, fur filling the role of a hospital. The geometric disposition of
forms seems related to the sketches and mechanical drawing
instruments from the artist's personal associations of his
father Evariste de Chirico, who was an engineer by profession.
At first glance it
seems that you are not sure what you are looking at. The artwork is giving you
a few aspects of these realistic objects but they are not clearly defined. it
is perplexing to a certain extent, the objects are like strange props in a
play. Metaphysical means; beyond the physical, very abstract, something in the
imagination that may not exist in reality, this defies the artwork making the
title true. I believe the work is the different characteristics of the town De
Chirico painted, Ferrara. The artwork is also painted on a personal level with
connections to his father (whom had passed), his health (which was not in the
best state), and the war.
Giorgio used the
element of dislocation, taking an object from its usual environment and placing
it in an unfamiliar one. He did this with the two parallel baguettes on the
blue print in the upstanding box. It is said to be connected to the bakery's of
Ferrara, impacting my understanding of surrealism through such meaning behind
something to disconnected seeming irrelevant to the rest of the artwork.
The artwork is
juxtaposed. He places totally different objects; draftsmen tools, food
(baguettes), boxes, and an artwork on an easel, and places them together for
comparison. This proves to show how the artwork presents itself to be
dreamlike, impacting on my understanding.
This links to another
element Georgio uses, Incongruity. The artwork lacks appropriateness with the
two parallel baguettes amongst the draftsmen tools. This has impacted my
understanding of the topic because it makes the impossible seem possible. To
the viewer it seems inharmonious but to the artist it tells a compatible,
personal story.