Il Ritornante
Chirico, Giorgio de
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Alternate file
Alternative Titles
Le Retour de Napoléon III
The Return
Date
1917-1918Description
Detail, central figures, left "revenant" father figure; Il Ritornante, painted in Ferrara in 1918, counts among Giorgio De Chirico's major works. Its composition is typical of the series of 'metaphysical interiors' begun in 1916, representing figures and symbolic objects within enclosed spaces. Here there are two figures, the first, the enigmatic 'revenant' with its closed eyes and cruciform moustache and goatee, resurrects the artist's father Evariste De Chirico, who had died in 1905. This railway engineer father finds himself several times exorcised in his son's work, in the appearance of geometrical instruments and of a series of coded representations of men. In the centre of the composition, a decapitated and mutilated tailor's dummy leaning against a scaffolding of geometrical instruments represents 'the spirit of our age,' denounced by Raoul Hausmann in his Tête mécanique of 1919. Source: Centre Pompidou [website]; http://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ (accessed 7/16/2015)
Type of Work
painting (visual work)Subject
Pittura Metafisica, Arte Metafisica, Twentieth century, Metaphysical (modern Italian fine arts style and movement)
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only