Giorgio de Chirico*
(Volos, Greece – 1888-1978 Rom)
I dioscuri, 1950–1955, oil on canvas, signed g. de Chirico, 50 x 60 cm, framed
This work is accompanied by a photo-certificate issued by Prof. Paolo Picozza, Roma, 19 May 2011.
Provenance:
Galleria Morosini, Roma
Sale, Christie‘s, Milan, 24 November 2011, lot 22
Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above)
Literature:
Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, Giorgio de Chirico. Catalogo generale. Opere dal 1910 al 1975, vol. 2, no. 698, Maretti Editore, 2015.
Hardly any motif appears as consistently in Giorgio de Chirico’s work as that of the Dioscuri. Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Leda, are regarded in Greek mythology as the epitome of brotherly loyalty. When the mortal Castor dies, Pollux, the son of Zeus, asks to be allowed to share his immortality with his brother. From then on, the two spent their days alternating between Hades and Mount Olympus, until they shone together in the sky as the constellation Gemini.
For de Chirico, this myth mirrored his own biography. He was born in Volos, the ancient Iolkos. It was from this port that the Argonauts once set sail, among them Castor and Pollux. Early on, he saw himself and his younger brother Andrea as a modern pair of Dioscuri. Andrea worked as a writer, composer, and painter under the name Alberto Savinio. In the Parisian avant-garde circles of the 1910s, the brothers were known by this nickname.
This painting was created [around 1952], the year Savinio died in Rome. On the shore of a choppy sea, beneath a cloud-streaked sky, the two young men stand with their horses. One faces the viewer head-on, wearing only a white cloth around his hips and holding a golden-yellow robe in his hand. The other, seen from behind, is reining in a rearing horse and gazing out at the sea. To the left stands a second, dark horse; on the hill behind it is a small temple. On the beach lie a fluted column fragment, a striped cloth, and a golden helmet – relics of a bygone heroic age.
The composition can be interpreted as a silent dialogue between this world and the next. One brother remains facing the viewer, while the other turns toward the horizon, setting out into the unknown. The horse tamers are reminiscent of the ancient Dioscuri on Rome’s Quirinal Hill, with whom de Chirico was deeply familiar. His painting style from those years – schooled in the tradition of the old masters – lends the scene a timeless quality. What the myth promises – that death will not separate the brothers – becomes a painterly certainty here.
Specialist: Joëlle Romba
(Volos, Greece – 1888-1978 Rom)
I dioscuri, 1950–1955, oil on canvas, signed g. de Chirico, 50 x 60 cm, framed
This work is accompanied by a photo-certificate issued by Prof. Paolo Picozza, Roma, 19 May 2011.
Provenance:
Galleria Morosini, Roma
Sale, Christie‘s, Milan, 24 November 2011, lot 22
Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above)
Literature:
Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico, Giorgio de Chirico. Catalogo generale. Opere dal 1910 al 1975, vol. 2, no. 698, Maretti Editore, 2015.
Hardly any motif appears as consistently in Giorgio de Chirico’s work as that of the Dioscuri. Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Leda, are regarded in Greek mythology as the epitome of brotherly loyalty. When the mortal Castor dies, Pollux, the son of Zeus, asks to be allowed to share his immortality with his brother. From then on, the two spent their days alternating between Hades and Mount Olympus, until they shone together in the sky as the constellation Gemini.
For de Chirico, this myth mirrored his own biography. He was born in Volos, the ancient Iolkos. It was from this port that the Argonauts once set sail, among them Castor and Pollux. Early on, he saw himself and his younger brother Andrea as a modern pair of Dioscuri. Andrea worked as a writer, composer, and painter under the name Alberto Savinio. In the Parisian avant-garde circles of the 1910s, the brothers were known by this nickname.
This painting was created [around 1952], the year Savinio died in Rome. On the shore of a choppy sea, beneath a cloud-streaked sky, the two young men stand with their horses. One faces the viewer head-on, wearing only a white cloth around his hips and holding a golden-yellow robe in his hand. The other, seen from behind, is reining in a rearing horse and gazing out at the sea. To the left stands a second, dark horse; on the hill behind it is a small temple. On the beach lie a fluted column fragment, a striped cloth, and a golden helmet – relics of a bygone heroic age.
The composition can be interpreted as a silent dialogue between this world and the next. One brother remains facing the viewer, while the other turns toward the horizon, setting out into the unknown. The horse tamers are reminiscent of the ancient Dioscuri on Rome’s Quirinal Hill, with whom de Chirico was deeply familiar. His painting style from those years – schooled in the tradition of the old masters – lends the scene a timeless quality. What the myth promises – that death will not separate the brothers – becomes a painterly certainty here.
Specialist: Joëlle Romba
