Metaphysical art. The De Chirico journals. Fondazione Giorgio e Isa De Chirico (2022). Vol. 21-22

The Foundation Giorgio e Isa de Chirico is pleased to announce the publication of «Metaphysical Art – The de Chirico Journals» no. 21/22 (2022), a biennial periodical dedicated to recent scholarship on Giorgio de Chirico’s art with contributions by internationally recognized academics as well as a new generation of researchers. The artist’s correspondence with Fritz Gartz (1909–1911), which has been reproduced in high resolution images, transcribed, and translated into English, is the main subject of this issue. Additionally, the letters come with an essay by Simonetta Antellini that discusses de Chirico’s writing style and use of the German language, as well as by some notes on the English translation by Francesco Caruso, which shed a new light on the Master’s vocabulary and providing a systematic interpretation for some of the most controversial passages of the correspondence. The letters’ publication puts an end to the contentious topic of Metaphysics’ historical development, which was chronologically reconstructed in Lorenzo Canova’s article and succinctly discussed in Paolo Picozza’s editorial for the Foundation. The essay by Fabio Benzi examines Florence’s cultural environment in the years 1910–1911 and analyzes the musical, artistic, literary, and philosophical milieu in which Metaphysics was born and the two de Chirico brothers operated. Elena Pontiggia’s contribution to the volume, which discusses a large and as of yet unpublished collection of letters written by de Chirico to his mother Gemma Cervetto and recently acquired by the Foundation, offers a more intimate and fascinating look into the lives of the two Dioscuri. Riccardo Dottori’s dense article offers a new interpretation of the Pictor Optimus’ painting Serenata (1910), based on a fresh literary source: On the Cave of the Nymphs by the ancient Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry, with which de Chirico became familiar through Leopardi. Finally, the extraordinary narrative essay by Italo Calvino entitled Cities of Thought (1983), published alongside the major Paris retrospective of de Chirico’s metaphysical works, translated into English and introduced by Anne Greeley, completes the volume. As is customary, this issue of «Metaphysical Art» closes with a description of the Foundation’s activities and publications for 2021/2022.