Page 57 - Studio International - November 1972

unquestionably the most deranged and was studying them before he met De Chirico,
idiosyncratic of the group, is more complex. The Morandi was equally involved with them, and
publication in English translation of his two De Chirico shared their admiration. Perhaps the
major literary works, Hebdomeros and this most interesting article in the collection is his
autobiography, together with a book geared for The Architectonic Sense in Ancient Painting, and
popular consumption — which among other the early part of his Memoirs often speaks of his
things reprints ten of his articles too — should intoxication with the Italian masters who were
stimulate discussion. clearly one of the elements which briefly
The centre of attention is obviously De brought the school into a very Italian alignment.
Chirico himself, who at the age of 83 is today one The Memoirs take us beyond the narrow span of
of Italy's grand old men. These Memoirs which the Metaphysical years, and introduce the new,
he wrote in two parts (1945 and 1962) appear improved De Chirico, the one of the grand
together here. It is curious that the most manner, which he has remained ever since. In
enthralling part of the book is the beginning and all fairness it may be that there is a general
there is a striking correspondence — which has misunderstanding of his aims, and that the
always been remarked— between the lucidity and derision which his subsequent achievements
poetic effect of the writing which deals with his have received from connoisseurs and art world
life up to the end of the First World War, and mandarins is the result of a general failure to
the character of the paintings he produced at appreciate that the stress in his pictures is not
that time. There is a marked change in the all placed on the substance of his painting but
writing after that. The magic associated with on something behind it. (Though it should be
his metaphysical works evaporates, to be added that De Chirico's essay on The Technique
replaced by pride and sarcasm directed at all and of Painting published in the same volume as his
sundry. He derides others and justified himself Memoirs shows him to be a scrupulous craftsman
often at the expense of the truth. As with the in the traditional sense.)
dating of his pictures, De Chirico the writer is Massimo Carrà's Introduction appositely
not always exact. He writes at length of court quotes De Chirico's brother Savinio whose ideas
cases over authenticated pictures he declared on the subject suggest a possible key. He wrote
fakes, while he has always sold imitations of his `I must say straight away: I am a painter beyond
early works, many of which are patently painting. For painters the painting is the end,
misdated. for some painters it is a means . . . My painting
Whereas The Memoirs may not be an is not to be looked at, or judged as it is looked at,
altogether reliable document Massimo Carrà's as one judges painting born directly of the eye,
Metaphysical Art is a straightforward collection the brushstroke, the colour, the tonal
of articles by the major luminaries of the relationships. My paintings do not finish where
`scuola metafysica' (with the characteristic painting finishes . . . It is right that they also live
exception of Morandi), supplemented by four beyond the painted surface'. I cannot help
short critical essays. (With over two hundred feeling that despite his concern with technique
illustrations this is by far the most useful De Chirico is also something of a painter beyond
publication on the subject to date.) There are painting. The 'outdated' traditional mode which
articles by Carrà, De Chirico, and Alberto the brothers developed may in the long run
Savinio, though some editing has gone on since offer us some idiosyncratic and original insights
the Italian edition includes some words by De into an artistic tradition which is now
Pisis and eight lesser associates. Also excluded consigned to the museum. It may be that De
are three fascinating etchings by Klinger. Chirico is the only living artist who is detached
It has long been recognized that the 'precise enough from the idee fixe of modern art to find
chronology of the intensive period of the exploration of the Rubensian grand manner
Metaphysical activity from 1916 to 1921 has been a creative and viable alternative. And why not ?
confused by the deliberately misleading accounts Though the petulance and the litigation with
of it written by its two main exponents Giorgio which his Memoirs echo, and the hostility with
de Chirico and Carlo Cart*, both of whom which he has been greeted since he turned away
claimed the entire credit for its invention'. In from metaphysical art is the price he has paid. q
her Historical Foreword Caroline Tisdall makes ROBERT MCNAB
a brisk assessment of the problem by focusing
on Carrà's evolution towards what can be called
a Metaphysical art before he met De Chirico.
The meeting was responsible for the final
adjustment. 'De Chirico's Metaphysical
inventions, his evocative iconography and
dislocated reality were undoubtedly a solution
for Carrà. In De Chirico's themes he found a
crystallization of his own tendencies towards a
return to the spirituality of Italian fourteenth-
and fifteenth-century painting.' One begins to
realize the general importance of the Italian
primitives and Renaissance painters in the
development of the metaphysical ideal. Carrà
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