METAPHYSICAL PAINTING

Revision

Origin

• It is an Italian art movement• It was born in 1917 in Ferrara with

the work of– Carlo Carrá– Giorgio de Chirico

• The word metaphysical is core to the poetic of the movement

Characteristics

• They depicted a dreamlike imagery with figures and objects seemingly frozen in time

• Artists accept the representation of the visible world in a traditional perspective space

Characteristics

• There is something strange in their works:– Unusual arrangement of human beings

as dummy-like models– Objects in strange, illogical contexts– Unreal lights and colours– Unnatural static of still figures

Characteristics

• Opposite to Futurism• They had more than a new way of

painting, only a new way of seeing things

• They used a different logic with:– Deserted squares– Silent, rigidly rendered buildings– Colonnades and shadows

Characteristics

– Trains passing far away in the distance– Clocks and statues

• There is never any precise hint in the paintings about the place or moment of the scene.

Characteristics

• Scenes are full of:– Eventless– Tome of silence– Imminence– Enigma

Characteristics

• All that generated a new reality which goes beyond the meaning of the things presented– Creating a sense of

• Expectation• mistery

– Bonded with the unconscious mind

Influences

• It may appear as a reaction against – Cubism– Futurism

• It may seem strange that many of the achievements of 20th century Italian art came during the rise of Fascism

• It created the premises of Surrealism

Artists

• Main members of the movement were:– Giorgio de Chirico– Carlo Carra– Giorgio Morandi– Italo Savino– Luigi Filippo Tibertelli– Ardengo Soffici