The Child's Brain
Artist: Giorgio de Chirico
Year Composed: 1914
Artistic Movement: Modernist
Nationality: Italy
Floor Found in Château: Unknown Location
Year Composed: 1914
Artistic Movement: Modernist
Nationality: Italy
Floor Found in Château: Unknown Location
About the Artwork
Giorgio de Chirico's The Child's Brain is an example of highlighting Friedrich Nietzsche's Apollonian and Dionysian Principles, which states that there is both order/logic and chaos/disorder within culture, life, and art. Here, a nude man - possessing both masculine and feminine qualities - is seen standing before a table. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why he is nude, which adds to the disorder characteristic from Nietzsche's Dionysian Principle. However, his Apollonian Principle is also on display through the book resting on the table, representing the logical, orderly side of the painting.
About the Artist
As a preeminent founder of metaphysical art that eventually influenced Surrealist artists such as Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dalí, Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico blended the mythology of Italian history with the teachings and beliefs of Friedrich Nietzsche. If one were to take the settings of the scenes in Edward Hopper paintings and mix that with the surreal motifs and meanings of Dalí's works, the result would be de Chirico's paintings. Such works include his Great Metaphysical Interior (1917), The Seer (1915), and The Grand Metaphysician (1917).
About the Movement
The Child's Brain was composed in the Modernist Age of art. Modernism was a philosophical movement that influenced art during the late stages of the 19th Century and into the 20th (or the later decades of the 1800s into the 1900s). Artists during this time rejected the religious and spiritual themes of the Enlightenment, and Modernists showcased rhetoric of modern society and industrialism. Some of the most famous Modernist artists included Henri Matisse, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Georgia O'Keeffe.
Location of Original Work of Art: Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Giorgio de Chirico's The Child's Brain is an example of highlighting Friedrich Nietzsche's Apollonian and Dionysian Principles, which states that there is both order/logic and chaos/disorder within culture, life, and art. Here, a nude man - possessing both masculine and feminine qualities - is seen standing before a table. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why he is nude, which adds to the disorder characteristic from Nietzsche's Dionysian Principle. However, his Apollonian Principle is also on display through the book resting on the table, representing the logical, orderly side of the painting.
About the Artist
As a preeminent founder of metaphysical art that eventually influenced Surrealist artists such as Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dalí, Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico blended the mythology of Italian history with the teachings and beliefs of Friedrich Nietzsche. If one were to take the settings of the scenes in Edward Hopper paintings and mix that with the surreal motifs and meanings of Dalí's works, the result would be de Chirico's paintings. Such works include his Great Metaphysical Interior (1917), The Seer (1915), and The Grand Metaphysician (1917).
About the Movement
The Child's Brain was composed in the Modernist Age of art. Modernism was a philosophical movement that influenced art during the late stages of the 19th Century and into the 20th (or the later decades of the 1800s into the 1900s). Artists during this time rejected the religious and spiritual themes of the Enlightenment, and Modernists showcased rhetoric of modern society and industrialism. Some of the most famous Modernist artists included Henri Matisse, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Georgia O'Keeffe.
Location of Original Work of Art: Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden