Chirico's Paris

Chirico's deserted, petrified cities inevitably came to mind for those crisscrossing a Paris emptied of its inhabitants in mid-March. Free of strident traffic and swarms of pedestrians, the city appeared in a new, unreal light to the rare stray wanderers. The Soul of Cities Chirico had his first "revelation" in a city: in Florence, on the Piazza Santa Croce, a few metres from Dante's statue. "The autumnal sun, lukewarm and loveless, lit up the statue and the façade of the temple. I got the strange impression that I was seeing all these things for the first time. And the composition of a painting came to mind." This picture, Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon, was the first of a series in which the artist strove to capture the enigma of an image…