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About the Book.
This seminal 1929 surrealist novel by the painter Giorgio de Chirico merges the realms of dream and reality.
In the artist’s only novel, de Chirico invites the reader into a world where language, time, space, and meaning are fluid, highlighting themes of mystery, myth, and the uncanny. Following the titular character Hebdomeros as he embarks on a series of philosophical musings and bizarre experiences divorced from a specific place or time, Hebdomeros embraces ambiguity in a profound exploration of the subconscious mind. Highly visual passages evoke the landscapes and compositions of de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings, and non sequiturs mirror the freedom that Surrealism allowed for in art of all categories.
An introduction by the scholar Fabio Benzi contextualizes de Chirico’s work within a broader modernist framework, highlighting its influence on surrealism and its resonance with the literary and artistic movements of the early twentieth century.
About the Author.
The Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) is best known for developing the style of metaphysical painting, which greatly influenced surrealism. Born in Greece, de Chirico studied in Athens and Munich, where he was inspired by the writings of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and the work of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger. After a year in Florence, he moved to Paris in 1911 and began exhibiting his enigmatic paintings of deserted piazzas featuring Roman arcades and classical statues that cast long, illogical shadows. While serving in the Italian army during World War I, he integrated objects and depictions of canvases on easels from disorienting perspectives into his mysterious interiors and landscapes. After 1919, upon settling in Rome, he embraced the style and techniques of the Italian masters and executed more academic compositions, though by 1925 he was again living in Paris and had returned to metaphysical themes. He continued to paint until the end of his life, living between Italy and France, and at eighty years old he entered his neometaphysical period, reinterpreting the classical subjects from his early, disquieting work in serene atmospheres and bright colors.