Giorgio de Chirico

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO (Greece, 1888 – Rome, 1978).
“Horse’s Head Among the Clouds,” 1971.
Lithograph on paper. P.A. copy. Standard edition of 99 copies.
Bears the stamp of Alberto Caprini’s studio in Rome and the artist’s dry seal.
Signed and inscribed in pencil.
Measurements: 51.5 x 39 cm; 62 x 52 cm (frame).
The horse occupies a very special place in De Chirico’s imagination. The artist drew upon it at various stages, linking it to classical tradition, ancient sculpture, the metaphysical landscape, and that sense of mystery and strangeness that characterizes much of his universe.In *Testa di cavallo tra le nubi*, De Chirico reduces the motif to an almost dreamlike image, rooted in the artist’s metaphysical logic, in which objects cease to respond to an obvious narrative explanation and take on a symbolic dimension. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that this is a work from 1971, when De Chirico was in the final stage of his career. In other words, we are looking at an artist who was already fully established, revisiting some of the motifs that had accompanied his career and reinterpreting them from the perspective of his maturity.
Giorgio de Chirico is one of the key figures in 20th-century European art and the principal driving force behind Metaphysical Painting, a movement that transformed the perception of reality in modern art. His training in Athens, Florence, and Munich, combined with his interest in Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, was decisive in the development of an enigmatic pictorial universe, populated by deserted squares, classical architecture, elongated shadows, and objects taken out of context. After moving to Paris, he came into contact with avant-garde figures such as Guillaume Apollinaire, solidifying a visual language that would exert a profound influence on the subsequent Surrealist movement.During World War I, he returned to Italy, where, alongside Carlo Carrà, he helped found the Scuola Metafisica.
Throughout his extensive career, he also worked in sculpture, drawing, printmaking, set design, and literature. His work is now part of the collections of some of the world’s leading museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.