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拍品專文
'When, in the sixteenth year of the reign of Antoninus the philosopher, Pausanias visited Greece, the gods had long been dead. The only voice that remained was that of the sea and the wind. The temples offered the sky their illustrious decay. The drums of columns were scattered on the ground like colossal broken necklaces. Wild horses ran on deserted beaches, they stopped to listen, moved around the crazy bloodshot eye, then raced off at a gallop, frightened by the immense nothingness' (A. Savinio, Narrate, uomini, la vostra storia (vita di Isadora Duncan), Milan, 1942, p. 258, quoted in P. Baldacci, Giorgio de Chirico Betraying the Muse: De Chirico and the Surrealists, New York, 1994, p. 170).
Written by Giorgio de Chirico's brother, the above quotation perfectly captures the atmosphere of Le cheval d'Agamémnon, painted in 1929. There is a haunting and timeless feeling to the painting, with the land around the creatures barren, as though time has laid waste to it all, the crumbling remains of ancient civilisation and ancient beliefs evoked by the tumbledown columns and the temple in the background. Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the sense that time, and indeed humanity, has passed, the horses appear groomed and elegant, and indeed the white horse is even adorned.
De Chirico's paintings sought to produce a strange feeling of recognition and revelation in their viewers, and Le cheval d'Agamémnon achieves this through many techniques. Not least amongst these is the manner through which de Chirico presents the viewer with a seeming lack of logic, showing a scene in which order has crumbled and strange and beautiful wild horses have taken possession of the beach and of the realm itself. The horses on the beach became a recurring theme in de Chirico's art, seeming to represent some strange and fevered mindscape, but where galloping creatures dominate most of his paintings on the theme, Le cheval d'Agamémnon is marked by a strange calm and stillness, qualities that are rare in his depictions of the animal kingdom ruling amongst the ruins of man.
Unlike so many of de Chirico's Metaphysical paintings, Due cavalli sulla spiaggia does not contain mere elements of the antique world placed in a setting that is vaguely familiar to the viewer. Instead, this is a vision of an antiquity that is still potent, still alive, in accordance with de Chirico's philosophy of time and the eternal. This reflects the same central idea that led de Chirico to paint such themes as the Piazza d'Italia, but here he has eschewed the discordant juxtaposition of objects from various eras. The ruins, the horses and even the plumes are all objects that do not shock us either by their depiction or their juxtaposition, meaning that de Chirico's vision of time manages to insinuate itself in our minds, to assault us gently. Rather than the more immediate shock of his strange squares, here he presents us with a living and vibrant image of an antiquity that exists concurrently with our lives. The vaguely and disturbingly anthropomorphic, even woman-like, horse has stopped, looking around, possibly at the viewer. This makes us engage with the horse, and therefore with the world in the painting. The horse seems to be having a sense of revelation in the same way as the viewer, increasing the feeling that this is a strange and otherworldly encounter, the meeting of two parallel and different worlds. De Chirico's painting accustoms the viewer to the idea that these two worlds coexist - there is a stillness and yet an immediacy to the painting that means that the viewer takes it to a certain extent for granted.
Written by Giorgio de Chirico's brother, the above quotation perfectly captures the atmosphere of Le cheval d'Agamémnon, painted in 1929. There is a haunting and timeless feeling to the painting, with the land around the creatures barren, as though time has laid waste to it all, the crumbling remains of ancient civilisation and ancient beliefs evoked by the tumbledown columns and the temple in the background. Meanwhile, in stark contrast to the sense that time, and indeed humanity, has passed, the horses appear groomed and elegant, and indeed the white horse is even adorned.
De Chirico's paintings sought to produce a strange feeling of recognition and revelation in their viewers, and Le cheval d'Agamémnon achieves this through many techniques. Not least amongst these is the manner through which de Chirico presents the viewer with a seeming lack of logic, showing a scene in which order has crumbled and strange and beautiful wild horses have taken possession of the beach and of the realm itself. The horses on the beach became a recurring theme in de Chirico's art, seeming to represent some strange and fevered mindscape, but where galloping creatures dominate most of his paintings on the theme, Le cheval d'Agamémnon is marked by a strange calm and stillness, qualities that are rare in his depictions of the animal kingdom ruling amongst the ruins of man.
Unlike so many of de Chirico's Metaphysical paintings, Due cavalli sulla spiaggia does not contain mere elements of the antique world placed in a setting that is vaguely familiar to the viewer. Instead, this is a vision of an antiquity that is still potent, still alive, in accordance with de Chirico's philosophy of time and the eternal. This reflects the same central idea that led de Chirico to paint such themes as the Piazza d'Italia, but here he has eschewed the discordant juxtaposition of objects from various eras. The ruins, the horses and even the plumes are all objects that do not shock us either by their depiction or their juxtaposition, meaning that de Chirico's vision of time manages to insinuate itself in our minds, to assault us gently. Rather than the more immediate shock of his strange squares, here he presents us with a living and vibrant image of an antiquity that exists concurrently with our lives. The vaguely and disturbingly anthropomorphic, even woman-like, horse has stopped, looking around, possibly at the viewer. This makes us engage with the horse, and therefore with the world in the painting. The horse seems to be having a sense of revelation in the same way as the viewer, increasing the feeling that this is a strange and otherworldly encounter, the meeting of two parallel and different worlds. De Chirico's painting accustoms the viewer to the idea that these two worlds coexist - there is a stillness and yet an immediacy to the painting that means that the viewer takes it to a certain extent for granted.