The Arrival (La meditazione del pomeriggio)

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

A monumental, Roman-style statue of a man in a business suit stands in the middle of a Mediterranean piazza framed by arcaded buildings. He faces the horizon, which is occluded by a brick wall that is nonetheless low enough to reveal palm trees, a trail of smoke from a passing train, and rainbow pennants flapping in a strong wind. De Chirico—inspired by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche—was enthralled by collisions of antiquity and modernity, and he stressed this scene's strangeness with raking light and a limpid geometry reminiscent of an Italian Renaissance experiment in perspective. The Arrival was one of de Chirico's earliest "metaphysical" paintings, championed by the surrealists; he further developed its themes with probing wit throughout his career.

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