 Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888–1978)
The Great Machine, 1925
Oil on canvas
Gift of the Friends of the Academy, 1945 (309.1)
Born in Greece, Giorgio de Chirico moved to Italy in
1909 and to Paris two years later. After serving in the
Italian military, he co-founded the Scuola Metafisica, an
informal school of painting that advanced a
“metaphysical” agenda by subjecting Renaissance
esthetic strategies to 20th-century irrationalism. De
Chirico’s desolate architectural spaces are typically
illogical, largely unpopulated, and disturbingly rich in
enigmatic juxtapositions. Indeed, perspective is used
emotionally rather than structurally, and dramatic light
and shadow conspire to convey a sense of mystery.
The Great Machine rises like a tower from the center of
an Italianate square. The monumental construction is
composed of irregular two- and three-dimensional
forms, stacked precariously and topped by a white bust
with a featureless, egg-shaped head. De Chirico often
used mannequins and tailor’s dummies in place of the
human model, liquidating his paintings of warmth and
emotion. Influencing the work of the later Surrealists, de
Chirico was, by extension, an important precursor to
Abstract Expressionism. |