(b Vólos, Greece, 10 July 1888; d Rome, 20 Nov
1978).
Italian painter, writer, theatre designer, sculptor and printmaker. De
Chirico was one of the originators of PITTURA METAFISICA. His paintings
are characterized by a visionary, poetic use of imagery, in which themes
such as nostalgia, enigma and myth are explored. He was an important
source of inspiration for artists throughout Europe in the inter-war years
and again for a new generation of painters in the 1980s. His abrupt
stylistic changes, however, have obscured the continuity of his approach,
which was rooted in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and this has
often led to controversy.
