De Chirico: The Song of Love (1 on One)

Emily Braun

"The unexpected encounter of a rubber glove, a green ball, and the head from a classical statue give rise to one the most famous paintings in the history of modernist art: Giorgio de Chirico's Song of Love (1914). [It] exemplifies what de Chirico calls "metaphysical" painting, [that] creates a disturbing sense of unreality, outside the usual logics of space and time, through the novel depiction of ordinary things. Emily Braun's essay explores the work's enigmatic motifs, showing how their roots range from the ancient culture of the Mediterranean, through the commercial scenarios de Chrico observed in the streets of Paris in the years around World War I, to the work of the avant-garde painters and poets of his time. ..."--Back cover.