ABANDONING CONSENSUAL PERSPECTIVE: Giorgio di Chirico.

In the construction of citiesin the architectural form of

houses, squares, gardens and public walks,ports, railroad stations, etc.,

exist the fundamentals of a great metaphysical aesthetic.

Giorgio di Chirico, Metaphysical Aesthetics

Chirico, The SeerGiorgio di Chirico, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street

Chirico, The Seer, 1915.

Chirico, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, 1914.

LINEAR PERSPECTIVE, also called scientific, mathematical, or one point, and RENAISSANCE PERSPECTIVE, is an elaboration and standardization of intuitive perspective and was developed in fifteenth century Italy. It uses mathematical formulas to construct illusionistic images in which all elements are constructed by imaginary lines called orthogonals that converge in one or more vanishing pointson a horizon line. Linear perspective is the system that most people living in western cultures think of as perspective. Because it is the visual code they are accustomed to reading, they accept as TRUTH the distortions it imposes.

Stokstad, Art History.

Anonymous, Ideal Italian City, ca 1500

The imbecile, that is, the man without metaphysical sense, is instinctively drawn towards an effect of mass and height,

towards a kind of architectural Wagnerism. They are people who do not know the terror of lines and angles

but are drawn towards the infinite.In this they find support for their limited psyche,

closed within the same circle as femininity and childishness.

di Chirico, On Metaphysical Art.

Chirico, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, 1914.

The absolute consciousness of space which an object must occupy in a paintingand of the space which separates objects from each other,

establishes a new astronomy of things which are attached to the planet by the fatal law of gravity.

The minutely accurate and carefully determined use of surface and volumesconstitutes the canon of the metaphysical aesthetic.

di Chirico, On Metaphysical Art

Hitda Gospels, presentation page,early 11th century

Other perspectives and other uses of volume, lines and planes are possible!

Duccio di Buoninsegna, Virgin and Child in Majesty,

1308-1311.

The imbecile, that is, the man without metaphysical sense, is instinctively drawn towards an effect of mass and height,

towards a kind of architectural Wagnerism. They are people who do not know the terror of lines and angles

but are drawn towards the infinite.In this they find support for their limited psyche,

closed within the same circle as femininity and childishness.

di Chirico, On Metaphysical Art.

BUT WHAT WOULD BE LOST OR GAINEDIF WE GAVE UP THIS “SCIENTIFIC”, “RENAISSANCE”,

PERSPECTIVE? THIS FIXED FOCAL POINT ON THE FARTHEST HORIZON?

“Whither is God?” he cried: “I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I.All of us are murderers.But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward,

sideward, foreward, in all directions?

Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing?”

Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1887.

The imbecile,. . . the man without metaphysical sense,

is instinctively drawn towards . . . the infinite.

Giorgio di Chirico

BUT, GOD IS DEAD . . . .

THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD.

AND

Chirico, The Seer, 1915.

Chirico, The Seer, 1915.

Chirico, The Seer, 1915.

Chirico, The Seer, 1915.

SCUOLA METAFISICA

To be come truly immortala work of art must escape all human limits:logic and common sense will only interfere.

But once these barriers are brokenit will enter the regions of childhood and dream.

. . . . What I hear is valueless; only what I see is living,and when I close my eyes my vision is even more powerful.

The ancient people of Crete painted an enormous eyein the middle of the narrow bands

that circled their vases, on their household utensils,and on the walls of their houses.

One must discover the eye in everything.

Chirico, The Seer, 1915.

PSYCHOLOGICAL AESTHETIC