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拍品专文
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, dated 'Rome, 25 April 1997'.
Painted circa 1955-60, Ettore e Andromaca is a reprisal of a theme that de Chirico first explored during the height of his Metaphysical period. One of the most memorable and enduring images of his career, de Chirico subsequently returned to this subject, creating numerous pictorial iterations of this tragic scene in which the Trojan hero, Hector bids farewell to his beloved and loyal wife, Andromache.
De Chirico had first introduced mannequins into his painting in 1914, and in 1917 painted a definitive series of paintings, including Il Trovatore and the first version of Ettore e Andromaca in which constructed, geometric mannequins are placed within often empty, enigmatic, melancholic settings, creating compellingly disquieting and surreal visions. In the 1917 Ettore e Andromaca, from which the present work was derived, Hector and Andromache’s sorrowful and final scene of departure is depicted not with the qualities of pathos and despair that befit the epic tale, but instead is void of human emotion and expression. The faceless, inanimate mannequins act as a substitute for a real, human presence. Ettore e Andromaca was painted in the midst of the First World War, while de Chirico was serving as a soldier at a military base in Ferrara. The mechanical, emotionless figures can be seen as de Chirico’s condemnation on the claustrophobic and stifling effect that war had on creativity, while also presenting, in a deliberately inanimate and satirical way, an everyday episode of loss and parting prevalent during the war years.
In the same way that de Chirico borrowed the images and themes of antiquity, the constant repetition of many of the key themes and motifs of his work also stands as one the first examples of appropriation in modern art. For de Chirico, who saw himself primarily as a philosophical painter, it was purely the idea expressed within a painting that was of value, never the artefact itself nor the means by which the idea was expressed. One of the first artists to recognise the central importance of this pioneering aspect of de Chirico’s work was the Pop artist, Andy Warhol. In tribute to the artist, and in recognition of his use of appropriation as an artistic technique, in the 1980s, Warhol created a series of silkscreen paintings of de Chirico’s work. De Chirico’s iconic and already much-repeated image of Ettore e Andromaca was one of the central images of Warhol’s series.
Painted circa 1955-60, Ettore e Andromaca is a reprisal of a theme that de Chirico first explored during the height of his Metaphysical period. One of the most memorable and enduring images of his career, de Chirico subsequently returned to this subject, creating numerous pictorial iterations of this tragic scene in which the Trojan hero, Hector bids farewell to his beloved and loyal wife, Andromache.
De Chirico had first introduced mannequins into his painting in 1914, and in 1917 painted a definitive series of paintings, including Il Trovatore and the first version of Ettore e Andromaca in which constructed, geometric mannequins are placed within often empty, enigmatic, melancholic settings, creating compellingly disquieting and surreal visions. In the 1917 Ettore e Andromaca, from which the present work was derived, Hector and Andromache’s sorrowful and final scene of departure is depicted not with the qualities of pathos and despair that befit the epic tale, but instead is void of human emotion and expression. The faceless, inanimate mannequins act as a substitute for a real, human presence. Ettore e Andromaca was painted in the midst of the First World War, while de Chirico was serving as a soldier at a military base in Ferrara. The mechanical, emotionless figures can be seen as de Chirico’s condemnation on the claustrophobic and stifling effect that war had on creativity, while also presenting, in a deliberately inanimate and satirical way, an everyday episode of loss and parting prevalent during the war years.
In the same way that de Chirico borrowed the images and themes of antiquity, the constant repetition of many of the key themes and motifs of his work also stands as one the first examples of appropriation in modern art. For de Chirico, who saw himself primarily as a philosophical painter, it was purely the idea expressed within a painting that was of value, never the artefact itself nor the means by which the idea was expressed. One of the first artists to recognise the central importance of this pioneering aspect of de Chirico’s work was the Pop artist, Andy Warhol. In tribute to the artist, and in recognition of his use of appropriation as an artistic technique, in the 1980s, Warhol created a series of silkscreen paintings of de Chirico’s work. De Chirico’s iconic and already much-repeated image of Ettore e Andromaca was one of the central images of Warhol’s series.