'' by Giorgio de Chirico, 1914 Giorgio de Chirico, unlike many artists of his generation, found little to admire in the works of
Cézanne and other French modernists, but was inspired by the paintings of the Swiss
Symbolist Arnold Böcklin and the work of German artists such as
Max Klinger. His painting
The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon (c. 1910) is considered his first Metaphysical work; it was inspired by what de Chirico called a "revelation" that he experienced in Piazza Santa Croce in Florence. In subsequent works he developed disquieting images of deserted squares, often bordered by steeply receding arcades shown in a raking light. Tiny figures in the distance cast long shadows, or in place of figures there are featureless dressmakers' mannequins. The effect produces a sense of dislocation in time and space. In 1913,
Guillaume Apollinaire made the first use of the term "metaphysical" to describe de Chirico's paintings. , 1918, ''L'Ovale delle Apparizioni
(The Oval of Apparition''), oil on canvas, 92 x 60 cm,
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome In February 1917, the
Futurist painter Carlo Carrà met de Chirico in
Ferrara, where they were both stationed during
World War I. Carrà developed a variant of the Metaphysical style in which the dynamism of his earlier work was replaced by immobility, and the two artists worked together for several months in 1917 at a military hospital in Ferrara. According to art historian Jennifer Mundy, "Carrà adopted de Chirico's imagery of mannequins set in claustrophobic spaces, but his works lacked de Chirico's sense of irony and enigma, and he always retained a correct perspective".
Filippo de Pisis, and
Mario Sironi. In the 1920s and later, the legacy of Metaphysical painting influenced the work of
Felice Casorati,
Max Ernst, and others. Exhibitions of Metaphysical art in Germany in 1921 and 1924 inspired the use of mannequin imagery in works by
George Grosz and
Oskar Schlemmer. Many paintings by
René Magritte,
Salvador Dalí, and other
Surrealists make use of formal and thematic elements derived from Metaphysical painting. Between the two World Wars in Italy there were numerous architectural vulgarisations of the metaphysical poetics of the "Piazza d'Italia", whose timeless atmosphere seemed to be congenial to the propaganda needs of the time. Squares of metaphysical flavor were built in the historical centers, as in Brescia or Varese, or in newly founded cities, such as those of the Agro Pontino (
Sabaudia,
Aprilia), to culminate in the spectacular unfinished
EUR in Rome. ==References==