Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The Melancholy and Mystery of a Street by Giorgio de Chirico (1914)


This painting took me of my feet with the title. The word choice is fairly specific, and it has given me the wondering about what it is actually implying. This painting is characteristic to me because the house arcades (on the left) stands as a scenery around empty space with highly cast exaggerated shadows or maybe just the very right moment of the sunset of the day. It is disturbing, but yet an evacuating and timeless universe where the laws of sense seem to give way to the dream world. It might sound a little too poetic for no reason, but of course I will try to explain.



Everything in the painting is ultimately done with great preciseness to contour with color use to set an empty atmosphere. In the left bottom corner is a girl (presumably) that is playing very peacefully with her stick and bicycle rim balancing her into the painting, where another shadow is to be seen. This creates a mental illusion, given the time (1914), the title, and also to consider what message to infer. The use of elements is very few, but imagination can build upon raging ideas for what this painting actually means. I suggest that the girl holds on to the whole meaning of the painting and that is by saying that she represents so much in so little.


Sensitive and caring with her elegant jump/run, conscientious and introverted when looking closer to the direction of her face (towards the white building, instead of the bigger unknown shadow). Usually these elements do not play a role all together, but with my knowledge of World War I and the ‘mystery’ of the future was unpredictable, just like this painting.


In 1914, it was probably to no one’s knowledge what the outcome of the WWI would be which is just like the outcome of this painting; it is to no one’s knowledge where the girl is heading and what she is to encounter.

I utterly and strongly suggest anyone reading this blog to review my 4th source to read a poem that magnifies this painting to something beyond what I have ever thought of or researched about.

Source: dotsey.com


Sources:

No comments:

Post a Comment