Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico in 1936, photographed by Carl Van Vechten
Birth name	Giorgio de Chirico
Born	July 10, 1888 (1888-07-10) Volos, Greece
Died	November 20, 1978 (1978-11-21) (aged 90) Rome, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Field	Painting, Sculpture, Drawing, Costume and Stage design
Training	Academy of Fine Arts in Munich
Movement	scuola metafisica, Surrealism
Works	see Selected works

Giorgio de Chirico (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo deˈkiːriko]; July 10, 1888 – November 20, 1978) was a Greek-born Italian artist. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. After 1919 he became interested in traditional painting techniques, and worked in a neoclassical or neo-Baroque style, while frequently revisiting the metaphysical themes of his earlier work.

Life and works[link]

He was born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father.^[1] After studying art in Athens, mainly under the guidance of the influential Greek painter Georgios Roilos, and Florence, De Chirico^[2] moved to Germany in 1906 and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he read the writings of the philosophers Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and Otto Weininger and studied the works of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger.

He returned to Italy in the summer of 1909 and spent six months in Milan. At the beginning of 1910, he moved to Florence where he painted the first of his 'Metaphysical Town Square' series, The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon, after the revelation he felt in Piazza Santa Croce. He also painted The Enigma of the Oracle while in Florence. In July 1911 he spent a few days in Turin on his way to Paris. De Chirico was profoundly moved by what he called the 'metaphysical aspect' of Turin: the architecture of its archways and piazzas. It was the city of Nietzsche. De Chirico moved to Paris in July 1911, where he joined his brother Andrea. Through his brother he met Pierre Laprade, a member of the jury at the Salon d'Automne, where he exhibited three of his works Enigma of the Oracle, Enigma of an Afternoon and Self-Portrait. During 1913 he exhibited his work at the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne, his work was noticed by Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, he also sold his first painting, The Red Tower. In 1914, through Guillaume Apollinaire, he met the art dealer Paul Guillaume, with whom he signed a contract for his artistic output.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Italy. Upon his arrival in May 1915, he enlisted in the Italian army, but he was considered unfit for work and assigned to the hospital at Ferrara. He continued to paint, and in 1918, he transferred to Rome. From 1918 his work was exhibited extensively in Europe.

De Chirico is best known for the paintings he produced between 1909 and 1919, his metaphysical period, which are memorable for the haunted, brooding moods evoked by their images. At the start of this period, his subjects were still cityscapes inspired by the bright daylight of Mediterranean cities, but gradually he turned his attention to studies of cluttered storerooms, sometimes inhabited by mannequin-like hybrid figures.

In autumn, 1919, De Chirico published an article in Valori Plastici entitled "The Return of Craftsmanship", in which he advocated a return to traditional methods and iconography.^[3] This article heralded an abrupt change in his artistic orientation, as he adopted a classicizing manner inspired by such old masters as Raphael and Signorelli, and became an outspoken opponent of modern art.^[4]

In the early 1920s, the Surrealist writer André Breton discovered one of De Chirico's metaphysical paintings on display in Paul Guillaume's Paris gallery, and was enthralled.^[5] Numerous young artists who were similarly affected by De Chirico's imagery became the core of the Paris Surrealist group centered around Breton. In 1924 De Chirico visited Paris and was accepted into the group, although the surrealists were severely critical of his post-metaphysical work.^[6]

De Chirico met and married his first wife, the Russian Ballerina Raissa Gurievich in 1925, and together they moved to Paris.^[7] His relationship with the Surrealists grew increasingly contentious, as they publicly disparaged his new work; by 1926 he had come to regard them as "cretinous and hostile".^[8] They soon parted ways in acrimony. In 1928 he held his first exhibition in New York City and shortly afterwards, London. He wrote essays on art and other subjects, and in 1929 published a novel entitled Hebdomeros, the Metaphysician.

In 1930, De Chirico met his second wife, Isabella Pakszwer Far, a Russian, with whom he would remain for the rest of his life. Together they moved to Italy in 1932, finally settling in Rome in 1944. In 1948 he bought a house near the Spanish Steps which is now a museum dedicated to his work.

In 1939, he adopted a neo-Baroque style influenced by Rubens.^[7] De Chirico's later paintings never received the same critical praise as did those from his metaphysical period. He resented this, as he thought his later work was better and more mature. He nevertheless produced backdated "self-forgeries" both to profit from his earlier success, and as an act of revenge—retribution for the critical preference for his early work.^[9] He also denounced many paintings attributed to him in public and private collections as forgeries.^[10]

He remained extremely prolific even as he approached his 90th year.^[11] In 1974 he was elected to the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. He died in Rome on November 20, 1978.

His brother, Andrea de Chirico, who became famous as Alberto Savinio, was also a writer and a painter.

Legacy[link]

De Chirico won praise for his work almost immediately from writer Guillaume Apollinaire, who helped to introduce his work to the later Surrealists. De Chirico strongly influenced the Surrealist movement: Yves Tanguy wrote how one day in 1922 he saw one of De Chirico's paintings in an art dealer's window, and was so impressed by it he resolved on the spot to become an artist—although he had never even held a brush. Other Surrealists who acknowledged De Chirico's influence include Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, and René Magritte. Other artists as diverse as Giorgio Morandi, Carlo Carrà and Philip Guston were influenced by De Chirico.

'That de Chirico was a poet, and a great one, is not in dispute. He could condense voluminous feeling through metaphor and association. One can try to dissect these magical nodes of experience, yet not find what makes them cohere... Early de Chiricos are full of such effects. Et quid amabo nisi quod aenigma est? ("What shall I love if not the enigma?")—this question, inscribed by the young artist on his self-portrait in 1911, is their subtext.'[3] (In this, he resembles his more representational American contemporary, Edward Hopper: their pictures' low sunlight, their deep and often irrational shadows, their empty walkways and portentous silences creating an enigmatic visual poetry.)^[12]

The visual style of Valerio Zurlini's film The Desert of the Tartars (1976) was influenced by De Chirico's work.^[13] Michelangelo Antonioni, the Italian film director, also claimed to be influenced by De Chirico. Some comparison can be made to the long takes in Antonioni's films from the 1960s, in which the camera continues to linger on desolate cityscapes populated by a few distant figures, or none at all, in the absence of the film's protagonists.

Modern photographer Duane Michals was also influenced by De Chirico.

Writers who have apreciated De Chirico include John Ashbery, who has called Hebdomeros "probably...the finest [major work of Surrealist fiction]."^[14] Several of Sylvia Plath's poems are influenced by De Chirico. In his book Blizzard of One Mark Strand included a poetic diptych called "Two de Chiricos:" "The Philosopher's Conquest" and "The Disquieting Muses."

Fumito Ueda's critically acclaimed PlayStation 2 game Ico (and also its sequel, Shadow of the Colossus, in a less direct way) was strongly influenced by De Chirico. Ico features children wandering though huge, ancient and otherwise uninhabited buildings, are predominately yellow and green in colour and use music only for cut-scenes, enhancing the feeling of space and sparseness. The box art for Ico used in Japan and Europe is particularly imitative of De Chirico's Melancholy and Mystery of a Street and The Nostalgia of the Infinite (both 1914).

Selected works[link]

• Flight of the Centauri, Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon and Enigma of the Oracle (1909)
• Ritratto di Andrea de Chirico (Alias Alberto Savinio) (1909–1910)
• Enigma of the Hour (1911)
• Melanconia, The Enigma of the Arrival and La Matinée Angoissante (1912)
• The Red Tower, Ariadne, The Awakening of Ariadne, The Uncertainty of the Poet, La Statua Silenziosa, The Anxious Journey, Melancholy of a Beautiful Day, Le Rêve Transformé, and Self-Portrait (1913)
• The Anguish of Departure (begun in 1913), Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire, The Nostalgia of the Poet, L'Énigme de la fatalité, Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure), Love Song, The Enigma of a Day, The Philosopher’s Conquest, The Child's Brain, The Philosopher and the Poet, Still Life: Turin in Spring, Piazza d’Italia (Autumn Melancholy), The Nostalgia of the Infinite and Melancholy and Mystery of a Street (1914)
• The Evil Genius of a King (begun in 1914), The Seer (or The Prophet), Piazza d’Italia, The Double Dream of Spring, The Purity of a Dream, Two Sisters (The Jewish Angel) and The Duo (1915)
• Andromache, The Melancholy of Departure, The Disquieting Muses, Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits (1916)
• Metaphysical Interior with Large Factory and The Faithful Servitor (both began in 1916), The Great Metaphysician, Ettore e Andromaca, Metaphysical Interior, Geometric Composition with Landscape and Factory and Great Metaphysical Interior (1917)
• Metaphysical Muses and Hermetic Melancholy (1918)
• Still Life with Salami and The Sacred Fish (1919)
• Self-portrait (1920)

• Italian Piazza, Maschere and Departure of the Argonauts (1921)
• The Prodigal Son (1922)
• Florentine Still Life (c. 1923)
• The House with the Green Shutters (1924)
• The Great Machine (1925) Honolulu Museum of Art
• Au Bord de la Mer, Le Grand Automate, The Terrible Games, Mannequins on the Seashore and The Painter (1925)
• La Commedia e la Tragedia (Commedia Romana), The Painter’s Family and Cupboards in a Valley (1926)
• L’Esprit de Domination, The Eventuality of Destiny (Monumental Figures), Mobili nella valle and The Archaeologists (1927)
• Temple et Forêt dans la Chambre (1928)
• Gladiatori (began in 1927), The Archaeologists IV (from the series Metamorphosis), The return of the Prodigal son I (from the series Metamorphosis) and Bagnante (Ritratto di Raissa) (1929)
• Illustrations from the book Calligrammes by Guillaume Apollinaire (1930)
• I Gladiatori (Combattimento) (1931)
• Milan Cathedral^[15], 1932
• Cavalos a Beira-Mar (1932–1933)
• Cavalli in Riva al Mare (1934)
• La Vasca di Bagni Misteriosi (1936)
• The Vexations of The Thinker (1937)
• Self-portrait (1935–1937)
• Archeologi (1940)
• Illustrations from the book L’Apocalisse (1941)
• Portrait of Clarice Lispector (1945)
• Villa Medici - Temple and Statue (1945)

Ettore e Andromaca (1973)

• Minerva (1947)
• Metaphysical Interior with Workshop (1948)
• Fiat (1950)
• Piazza d’Italia (1952)
• The Fall - Via Crucis (1947–54)
• Venezia, Isola di San Giorgio (1955)
• Salambò su un cavallo impennato (1956)
• Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits (1958)
• Piazza d’Italia (1962)
• Cornipedes, (1963)
• Manichino (1964)
• Ettore e Andromaca (1966)
• The Return of Ulysses, Interno Metafisico con Nudo Anatomico and Mysterious Baths - Flight Toward the Sea (1968)
• Il rimorso di Oreste, La Biga Invincibile and Solitudine della Gente di Circo (1969)
• Orfeo Trovatore Stanco, Intero Metafisico and Muse with Broken Column (1970)
• Metaphysical Interior with Setting Sun (1971)
• Sole sul cavalletto (1972)
• Mobili e rocce in una stanza, La Mattina ai Bagni misteriosi, Piazza d'Italia con Statua Equestre, La mattina ai bagni misteriosi and Ettore e Andromaca (1973)
• Pianto d’amore - Ettore e Andromaca and The Sailors’ Barracks (1974)

Works about[link]

• Aenigma Est – 1990 film (Direction: Dimitri Mavrikios; Screenplay: Thomas Moschopoulos, Dimitri Mavrikios)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Giorgio de Chirico at MoMA, biography and image gallery
• de Chirico at the Mart, Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto

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Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative rock band active from 1979 to 1997, known for innovative instrumentation^[2] and atmospheric, non-lyrical vocals. The original members were Elizabeth Fraser (vocals), Robin Guthrie (guitar, drum machine) and Will Heggie (bass guitar), who was replaced by Simon Raymonde (also bass guitar) early in the band's career.

While the entire band earned much critical praise, Elizabeth Fraser's distinctive vocals received the most attention. At times barely decipherable, Fraser seemed to veer into glossolalia and mouth music. Allmusic reviewer Ned Raggett writes that "part of her appeal is how she can make hard-to-interpret lyrics so emotionally gripping."^[3]

History[link]

Formative years: 1979-1983[link]

Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie (bass guitar), both from Grangemouth, Scotland, formed the band in 1979. At a local disco, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who would eventually provide vocals.^[4] The band's influences at the time included Joy Division, The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols, Kate Bush, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band was named after the song "The Cocteau Twins" by fellow Scotsmen 'Johnny and the Self-Abusers' (who later renamed themselves Simple Minds; the song "The Cocteau Twins" was also re-penned as "No Cure"). Their debut recording, Garlands (released by 4AD Records in 1982), was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies EP. Around that time, NME's Don Watson compared the style of the band to goth bands like Gene Loves Jezebel and Xmal Deutschland.^[5]

	"The Spangle Maker" noicon Sample of "The Spangle Maker", (1984).
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, Peppermint Pig.^[4] He subsequently joined Lowlife. The band's sound on its first three recordings relied on the combination of Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalist guitar, and Fraser's voice; the Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, Head over Heels, relied solely on the latter two.^[4] This led to the growth of the band's characteristic sound: Fraser's voice, by turns ethereal and earthy, combined with Guthrie's effects-heavy guitars. Guthrie has often said that he is far more interested in the way the guitar is recorded, than in the actual notes being played, though he later admitted the effects and layering were due to his own technical limitations.^[6]

In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil project (this spawned a cover version of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" performed by Guthrie and Fraser), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as bass player.^[4]

Rise to fame: 1984-1989[link]

With Raymonde, the band released a series of critically acclaimed albums and EPs that explored their new style. These included The Spangle Maker (1984), Treasure (1984), Aikea-Guinea (1985), Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay (1985), and Love's Easy Tears (1986). Raymonde, who was called in to work on the second album by This Mortal Coil, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, Victorialand (1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Raymonde returned to the group for The Moon and the Melodies (1986), a collaboration with ambient composer Harold Budd,^[4] which was not released under the Cocteau Twins name.

In 1985, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records for distribution of the Cocteau Twins' releases in the US and other territories. To commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque (1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back catalogue.

While remaining a 4AD band internationally, the Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, Blue Bell Knoll, in October of that year.

Mainstream success: 1990-1994[link]

The group released Heaven or Las Vegas in late 1990. The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the higher reaches of the UK charts immediately after its release.^[7] Despite the success of the record and the subsequent concert tours, not everything was well with the band. They parted ways with 4AD following Heaven or Las Vegas partly because of conflicts with the label's founder Ivo Watts-Russell, and were close to breaking up over internal problems due in large part to Guthrie's addiction to drugs and alcohol.^[8]

While on their international tour supporting Heaven or Las Vegas, the group signed a new recording contract with Mercury Records subsidiary Fontana for the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their US relationship with Capitol. In 1991, 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1990, and also included a bonus disc of rare or previously unreleased material.

The band's seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café, was released in late 1993. The band explained that Four-Calendar Café was a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser undergoing psychotherapy. The two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989.

Latest releases and break-up: 1995-1997[link]

1995 saw the release of two new EPs: Twinlights and Otherness. Some of the tracks on Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, Milk and Kisses (1996).^[4] The record saw the return of more heavily layered guitars, and Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely. Two singles were taken from the album: Tishbite and Violaine; both exist in two CD versions, with different b-sides included on each. The band, augmented by an extra guitarist and a drummer, toured extensively to support the album, their last for Mercury/Fontana. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch", which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, became the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. It was also one of the two songs written and arranged by Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde for Chinese pop singer Faye Wong for her Mandarin album Fu Zao released in June 1996, the other being "Tranquil Eye" from Violaine released in October 1996.

In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth LP, the trio disbanded over irreconcilable differences in part related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that they will likely never be finished or released in any form. In the same year Guthrie and Raymonde wrote and performed a new song in Faye Wong's eponymous album.

Post-breakup[link]

In 1999, Bella Union, the record label founded by Guthrie and Raymonde, released a double-CD Cocteau Twins compilation entitled BBC Sessions. The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with rare and unreleased material included. In 2000, 4AD released Stars and Topsoil, a compilation of selected songs picked by the band members that had been released during their years with 4AD; all recordings had been digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed Stars and Topsoil with the release of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs.

On 31 January 2005, the Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 30 April 2005, and later indicated that additional tour dates would be added. On 16 March the reunion was cancelled.

In 2005, 4AD released a worldwide limited edition of 10,000 compilation box set titled, Lullabies to Violaine, a 4-disc set that details every single and EP released from 1982-1996. This was shortly followed up by two 2-disc sets of the same names, known as Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Since March 2007, the band has started podcasts of exclusive material.^[9] On 6 October 2008 the Cocteau Twins accepted the Q Awards Inspiration Award.^[10]

In 2009, the Cocteau Twins' song "Alice" was used in Peter Jackson's film The Lovely Bones.^[11]

Solo work[link]

The former members of Cocteau Twins have remained active musically in the years since the band's demise. In addition to forming Bella Union, Guthrie and Raymonde have produced releases from new bands signed to that label.

Simon Raymonde released the solo album Blame Someone Else as the first release on Bella Union. He also co-produced the posthumous album by Billy Mackenzie from the Associates, then went on to produce several Domino Records artists like James Yorkston, Archie Bronson Outfit (whom he later managed) and Clearlake. More recently he has produced the UK band The Duke Spirit, London-based duo Helene, former Golden Virgins frontman Lucas Renney and has mixed the Mercury Prize nominated album The End Of History by Fionn Regan. In his role running Bella Union and signing bands to the label, he has discovered such artists as Laura Veirs, Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Lift to Experience, The Low Anthem I Break Horses The Czars John Grant and the label is renowned for its long-term relationships with its artists, like Beach House who have released all four of their albums with Bella Union, as have Dirty Three, Midlake etc. He has recently picked up Independent Label of The Year award at the Music Week Awards in both 2010 and 2012.

Robin Guthrie has released three solo albums - Imperial, Continental, and Carousel - and four EPs. He toured extensively with his band Violet Indiana, which included ex-Cocteau's guitarist Mitsuo Tate in the line-up. He has also scored the music for two movies — American indie film Mysterious Skin (in collaboration with Harold Budd) and Mexican/Spanish movie 3:19. He also reunited with Budd to collaborate on two companion CDs: Before The Day Breaks and After The Night Falls. In 2006, Guthrie produced three songs on Mahogany's "Connectivity," on which Lucy Bell Guthrie made her singing debut. He most recently produced and played guitar on Apollo Heights debut album, White Music For Black People

Elizabeth Fraser provided guest vocals on Future Sound of London's single "Lifeforms" (1993), vocals for three songs on Massive Attack's Mezzanine in 1998 (as well as touring with them several times), and for other musical projects and groups. It has been speculated that she has been working on a solo album, though details of this are as yet unavailable.^[12] Fraser provided the vocals for "Lament for Gandalf" in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In 2000 she sang with Peter Gabriel on Ovo : The Millennium Show. In 2005, she worked with Breton musician Yann Tiersen on two songs for his album Les retrouvailles.

In May 2012, Antony Hegarty announced that Elizabeth Fraser would play two live dates in August as part of the Meltdown Festival at London's Southbank Centre. ^[13]

Former members[link]

• Elizabeth Fraser - vocals (1979-1997)
• Robin Guthrie - guitars, bass, drum machine (1979-1997)
• Will Heggie - bass (1979-1983)
• Simon Raymonde - bass (1983-1986, 1986-1997)

Discography[link]

• Garlands (1982)
• Head over Heels (1983)
• Treasure (1984)
• Victorialand (1986)
• The Moon and the Melodies (1986), (in collaboration with Harold Budd)
• Blue Bell Knoll (1988)
• Heaven or Las Vegas (1990)
• Four-Calendar Café (1993)
• Milk and Kisses (1996)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Cocteau Twins on 4AD website
• Strangeways Radio Station where Simon Raymonde broadcasts Beneath The Surface
• [1] Official website for Elizabeth Fraser

Alberto Savinio, real name Andrea Francesco Alberto de Chirico (25 August 1891 - 5 May 1952) was an Italian writer, painter, musician, journalist, essayist, playwright, set designer and composer. He was the younger brother of 'metaphysical' painter Giorgio De Chirico. His work often dealt with philosophical and psychological themes, and he also was heavily concerned with the philosophy of art.^[1]

Throughout his life, Savinio composed five operas^[1][2] and authored at least forty-seven books, including multiple autobiographies and memoirs. Savinio also extensively wrote and produced works for the theater. Savinio's work received mixed reviews during his lifetime, often due to his pervasive use of surrealism. He was influenced by and a contemporary of Apollinaire, Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Fernand Léger.^[1]

Life[link]

Birth and family[link]

Born in Athens, Andrea De Chirico was the third child of Evaristo De Chirico and Emma Cervetto De Chirico (a Genoese noble). At the time of his birth, Andrea's parents were living as Italian expatriates in Greece while his father worked as an engineer for the Societé des Chemins de Fer de la Thessalie, working on the Greek railway system. His older brother, three years his senior, was the renowned artist Giorgio De Chirico. Andrea also had an older sister named Adele who died six months before his birth. Later in his life, Andrea would reflect upon his foreign birth as a special opportunity to determine his own destiny through determination of his own national identity.^[1]

Early life and education[link]

Andrea was primarily homeschooled by his mother, while living in Greece. He often depicts his father as educationally restrictive, authoritarian and oppressive. Partly due to his restrictive learning environment at home, Andrea learned to love Greece. At a young age he became enthralled by the Ancient Greek ruins and culture, which were conducive to creativity and fantasy during his childhood. As a result, Andrea would later often credit Greece for his love of critical thinking and irony.^[1]

In addition to his homeschooling, Andrea also enjoyed a strong musical education. At the age of twelve, he graduated from the Athens Conservatory with a concentration in piano and music composition. When he was fourteen, his father died. In response, Andrea composed a Requiem in his father's memory. Andrea's family then returned to their ethnic homeland of Italy. Staying in Italy only briefly, the family again relocated, this time to Munich, Germany. While living in Germany, Andrea began to be tutored in piano and composition by renowned musician Max Reger. While under Reger's tutelage, Andrea composed his first piece to receive critical acclaim, a three act opera, Carmela; as well as an opera of lesser acclaim, Il tesoro del Rampsenita. Carmela was quickly noticed by composer Pietro Mascagni, and music publisher Ricordi.^[1]

By 1911, when Andrea was twenty, his music had become popular enough to be performed in public in Munich. The same year, Andrea set out on his own, moving to Paris, France an epicenter of activity for the European Avant-Garde and Modernist movements. In Paris, he befriended Guillaume Apollinaire, one of the foremost poets, critics, and artists at large in the Avant-Garde movement. While living in Paris, Andrea also became acquainted with a range of writers and artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Fernand Léger. Andrea developed an interest in the art of mime during this period, as well.^[1]

In 1914, largely in an effort to differentiate himself from his increasingly famous artist-brother, Giorgio De Chirico, Andrea adopted the penname Alberto Savinio. Savinio founded the musical movement Sincerismo (Sincerism) this same year. Sincerismo largely abandoned polyphony and harmony in favor of dissonance and rhythm as its primary musical characteristics. That year also saw the publication of Les Chants de la mi-mort (The Songs of Half-Death), a dramatic poem including original illustrations and a piano suite accompaniment, both also created by Savinio. Les Chants de la mi-mort was written primarily in French, but also included passages written in Italian. The poem consisted of a single act, containing four loosely linked scenes. Les Chants de la mi-mort dealt largely with the concept of sleep (interpretatively referred to as "The Half Death") and was filled with odd, mechanical toy-like characters. This poem is often considered one of the most important of the 1910s surrealist movement; as a result, Savinio is often considered one of the founders of the Surrealist movement.^[1][3]

World War I[link]

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Savinio and his brother returned to Italy in order to enlist in the Italian army. After enlisting, the pair was sent to the military hospital in Ferrara, Italy, where they met Carlo Carrà. This group of three, under the influence of Giovanni Papini, then proceeded to found the artistic movement Schola Metafisica (Metaphysical School). Schola Metafisica became known as one of the most significant artistic experiences of twentieth-century Italy. In 1917, Savinio was sent to Greece as an interpreter for Italian troops. While stationed there, Savinio gained the chance to rediscover his childhood play-world of Greece, and the influence can be seen in his first published novel, Hermaphrodito. Hermaphrodito was published in 1918, and like Les Chants de la mi-mort, was a multilingual piece, intertwining languages as well as prose and poetry. Hermaphrodito was also a meld of autobiography, fiction, thoughts and fantasies; it has even been called a war journal, as it often deals with specific experiences from World War I. Savinio claimed a very personal connection to the novel, once stating, "Tutto che io sono nasce da li. Tutto che ho fatto viene da li" (Everything that I am springs from there. Everything that I have done comes from there.). After World War I, Savinio relocated to Rome.^[1]

Middle Life[link]

In 1920, Savinio completed Tragedia del l'infanzia (Tragedy of Childhood), a primarily autobiographical collection of episodes illuminating the disconnect between the adult and juvenile experience and perception of the world. Each of the episodes in Tragedia del l'infanzia presents a situation in which the world of adults and "artistic" creativity is contrasted with the world of childhood imaginings. Tragedia del l'infanzia was finally published in 1937.^[1]

In 1924, the Metropolitan Opera of New York performed his ballet Perseus.^[4] 1925 saw the publication of his second novel, La Casa Ispirata (The Haunted House). Set in 1910 Paris, the novel tells the story of the protagonist-narrator, who is apparently renting a room from a typical bourgeois house, which Savinio describes as being "inhabited by Ghosts". The novel is, in many ways, a darkly comic and grotesque revue of modern life. The scenes of the novel, are at once hyper real and fantastically abstract, with great attention being given to the unconscious.^[1]

This year also brought the beginning of collaboration with his brother in Pirandello's Teatro d'Arte in Rome, Italy. The theater had always been a favorite medium for Savinio as it was in many ways a crossroads of the visual, musical and linguistic creativities.^[1] Savinio immersed himself in every aspect of the theater, from scripting, to set design.^[4] While working at the Teatro d'Arte he wrote Capitan Ulisse, a three-act drama considered fundamental to his body of work. The play was advertised in 1926, but not actually performed due to problems in the theater company. The play was eventually published in 1934, and staged at the Anton Giulio Bragaglia Theater in Rome in 1938. Also while working at the Teatro d'Arte, Savinio met Maria Morino, and proceeded to marry her the following year.^[1]

In 1926, Savinio returned to Paris, and began to paint seriously.^[4] In 1927, he gave his first one man show as a painter, at the Bernheim Gallery in Paris. Savinio's contributions to the Avant-Garde movement during this period sharply contrast with the provincialism that was favored by the National Fascist Party in Italy at this time. Angelica o la Notte di Maggio (Angelica or the Night in May), which was a parodical and surrealist revisitation of the Ancient Greek myth of Eros and Psyche was published this year, as well. The novel tells the story of Angelica- a poor actress working in a second rate theater in Greece at the end of the nineteenth-century and Baron Felix Von Rothspeer, a loveless, older aristocrat. In many ways, Savinio makes the theater a central character in the plot; it is painted as a place where the senses and romance can be deeply explored and discovered.^[1][3]

In 1928, Savinio's daughter, Angelica, was born in Paris; his son was then born in 1934. Both of his children were named for characters from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1516). During this period of his life, he was primarily occupied with literary, musical and artistic criticism.^[1]

Later life and death[link]

Infansia di Nivasion Dolcemare (Infancy of Nivasion Dolcemare) was published in 1941. This was and is considered one of Savinio's finest novels, containing a witty but intensely narrative driven style, and unsurprisingly, extensive discussions of the philosophy of art. 1950 saw the publication of two more opera's by Savinio, Orfeo vedova and Agenzia Fix. Savinio completed his fifth and final opera, Cristofor Colombo, shortly before his death on May 5, 1952 in Florence, Italy.^[1][2][3][4]

Self Determination[link]

The penname "Alberto Savinio" was an "Italianization" of Albert Savine, a minor French writer and translator of Oscar Wilde and Thomas De Quincey. Savinio chose this name partly because Savine was a relative unknown in the literary world. Savinio believed that the selection of a penname allowed him a moment of self determination; something in which he could choose his own destiny. For Savinio, being an ethnic and cultural Italian was much like a cultural penname for him. In his somewhat autobiographical novel, Infanzia di Nivasio Dolcemare (The Infancy of Nivasio Dolcemare), Savinio would reflect upon the fact that:

as an Italian born outside of Italy, Nivasio Dolcemare considers himself privileged. This "indirect" birth is an ironic situation, as stylistic solution, a condition that has added certain nuances, certain subtleties, certain half and quarter-tone passages to the national faculties of the man Dolcemare which "direct" birth would not have permitted… Italian more Italian than the Italian since the "Italian" in him is not a "place of birth", but a condition discovered, wanted, conquered ^[1]

Brotherly connection[link]

Early in their lives, Andrea and his brother, Giorgio were nearly inseparable, even referring to themselves as Castor and Pollux, the warrior twins. As children, there was tremendous collaboration between the brothers that led to strong overlap of themes later in life. The most well noted of these overlapping themes was that of the mythical Greek Argonauts, as a metaphor for their development and journey as artists.^[1][5]

There is evidence to suggest, however that their relationship frayed in later life. Although their deceased sister Adele appears in and is mentioned frequently in Savinio's memoirs and autobiographies, Giorgio fails to appear at all in any of them.^[1]

Critical review[link]

Judgments of Savinio's work varied wildly according to phase his life and the reviewer. Many of Savinio's most critically praised works are also amongst his most disliked and misunderstood. This is largely due to Savinio's frequent and controversial use of Surrealism and Sincerism as media for creative expression.^[1][4]

From a very young age, Savinio's piano playing impressed critics nearly unanimously. Guillaume Apollinaire once said of Savinio's piano playing:

I was surprised and beguiled; Savinio mistreated his instrument so much that after each piece the keyboard had to be cleared of chips and splinters. I foresee that within two years he will have gutted every piano in Paris. Savinio will then go on to destroy every piano in the universe, which may be a true liberation. ^[4]

Judgment of his body of work as a whole was seen in 1954, when the Venice Biennale created a room devoted solely to Savinio's artistic legacy.^[5]

In recent years, Savinio's works have seen something of a revival. This posthumous rebirth of Savinio's work can be largely attributed to a growing understanding of Surrealism in the public consciousness. It is fair to say that in many ways Savinio was well before his time, a fact that both distinguishes him and accounts for much of the negativity amongst his contemporary critics.^[1]

References[link]