Giorgio de Chirico * (Volos, Griechenland 1888-1978... Lot n° 13

(Volos, Greece 1888–1978 Rome) Piazza d’Italia, late 1940’s, signed; signed, declaration of authenticity and notary inscription (dated 1 April 1963) on the reverse, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm, framed This work is registered in the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico under no. 016/06/20 OT and it is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity (dated 22 October 2020). This work is accompanied by a photo-certificate issued by Claudio Bruni Sakraischik, Rome (dated 23 April 1988). This work is accompanied by a photo-certificate signed by the artist. Provenance: Finarte, Milan, 24 March 1988, lot 54 European Private Collection Literature: AA. VV., Arte all’incanto. Aste Finarte 1987/1988, Longanesi & C., Milan 1988, exh. cat. p. 220 De Chirico’s landscapes are silent, solitary, melancholic, immersed in an unreal light and are at times disturbing, they have a powerful dreamlike quality. One can almost see the silence, it is a silence that fascinates and, at the same time, disturbs the absolute motionlessness of the image, evoking the unreal and the magical. The scenes are well defined, the cooler tones with long, marked shadows filling the squares at the centre where ancient sculptures stand, statues on stone pedestals, which seem to float in the centre of the square, bringing to mind the classicism with which the artist grew up. The shadows are the protagonists, they project themselves onto the whole scene as if they were on stage; in the background, behind a red brick wall, a steam engine appears with a puff of smoke that recalls de Chirico’s journey motif and also his father’s job. De Chirico searches for every tiny area that eludes the distracted normality of everyday perceptions - he listens to silence, contemplates the invisible, every object is rich in symbolism, and everything is centered around an absence. His landscapes are often solitary, but in some of them it is possible to se