Birth and family Born in
Athens, Greece, Andrea De Chirico was the third child of Evaristo De Chirico and Gemma Cervetto De Chirico (a
Genoese noble). At the time of his birth, Andrea's parents were living as Italian
expatriates in Greece while his father worked on the
Greek railway system as an engineer for the Societé des Chemins de Fer de la Thessalie. His elder brother, three years his senior, was the renowned artist Giorgio de Chirico. Andrea also had an elder sister named Adele (or Adelaide), who died six months before his birth. Later in his life, Andrea would reflect upon his foreign birth as a special opportunity to determine his own destiny through the determination of his own national identity.
World War I Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Savinio and his brother returned to Italy in order to enlist in the
Italian army. After enlisting, the pair was sent to the military hospital in
Ferrara, Italy, where they met
Carlo Carrà. This group of three, under the influence of
Giovanni Papini, then proceeded to found the artistic movement
Scuola Metafisica (
Metaphysical Painting). Scuola Metafisica became known as one of the most significant artistic experiences of twentieth-century Italy. In 1917, Savinio was sent to Greece as an interpreter for Italian troops. While stationed there, Savinio gained the chance to rediscover his childhood play-world of Greece, and the influence can be seen in his first published novel,
Hermaphrodito.
Hermaphrodito was published in 1918, and like
Les Chants de la mi-mort, was a multilingual piece, intertwining languages as well as
prose and
poetry. Hermaphrodito was also a meld of autobiography, fiction, thoughts and fantasies; it has even been called a war journal, as it often deals with specific experiences from World War I. Savinio claimed a very personal connection to the novel, once stating, "
Tutto che io sono nasce da li. Tutto che ho fatto viene da li" (Everything that I am springs from there. Everything that I have done comes from there.). After World War I, Savinio relocated to Rome. In 1920, he completed (
Tragedy of Childhood), a primarily autobiographical collection of episodes illuminating the disconnect between the adult and juvenile experience and perception of the world. Each of the episodes in ''Tragedia del l'infanzia
presents a situation in which the world of adults and "artistic" creativity is contrasted with the world of childhood imaginings. Tragedia del l'infanzia
was finally published in 1937. 1925 saw the publication of his second novel, (The Haunted House''). Set in 1910 Paris, the novel tells the story of the protagonist-narrator, who is apparently renting a room from a typical
bourgeois house, which Savinio describes as being "inhabited by Ghosts". The novel is, in many ways, a darkly comic and grotesque revue of modern life. The scenes of the novel, are at once hyper real and fantastically abstract, with great attention being given to the unconscious. This year also brought the beginning of collaboration with his brother in
Pirandello's Teatro d'Arte in Rome, Italy. The theater had always been a favorite medium for Savinio as it was in many ways a crossroads of the visual, musical and linguistic creativities. Savinio immersed himself in every aspect of the theater, from scripting, to set design. While working at the Teatro d'Arte he wrote , a three-act drama considered fundamental to his body of work. The play was advertised in 1926, but not actually performed due to problems in the theater company. The play was eventually published in 1934, and staged at the
Anton Giulio Bragaglia Theater in Rome in 1938. Also while working at the Teatro d'Arte, Savinio met Maria Morino, and proceeded to marry her the following year. In 1926, Savinio returned to Paris, and began to paint seriously. In 1927, he gave his first one-man show as a painter, at the
Bernheim Gallery in Paris. Savinio's contributions to the Avant-Garde movement during this period sharply contrast with the provincialism that was favored by the National Fascist Party in Italy at this time. (
Angelica or the Night in May), which was a parodical and surreal revisitation of the Ancient Greek myth of
Eros and Psyche was published this year, as well. The novel tells the story of Angelica, a poor actress working in a second rate theater in Greece at the end of the nineteenth-century and Baron Felix von Rothspeer, a loveless, older aristocrat. In many ways, Savinio makes the theater a central character in the plot; it is painted as a place where the senses and romance can be deeply explored and discovered. In 1928, Savinio's daughter, Angelica, was born in Paris; his son, Ruggero, was then born in 1934. Both of his children were named for characters from
Ludovico Ariosto's
Orlando Furioso (1516). During this period of his life, he was primarily occupied with literary, musical and artistic
criticism.
Later life and death (
The Childhood of Nivasio Dolcemare) was published in 1941. This was and is considered one of Savinio's finest novels, containing a witty but intensely narrative-driven style, an autobiographical fantasy about his childhood in Athens (Nivasio is an anagram for Savinio). 1950 saw the publication of two more operas by Savinio, Orfeo vedova and Agenzia Fix. Savinio completed his fifth and final opera, conceived for the radio, , shortly before his death on 5 May 1952 in
Rome, Italy. == Self determination ==