The Pirate (Le Corsaire)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

From de Chirico's metaphysical period, The Pirate features tools for the measurement of time and space stacked in the form of an abstract figure: stone markers, folding rulers, painted right angles, a wooden sundial. A map representing Greece—the Italian artist's birthplace, and where he spent his early years—includes travel routes taken or to be taken. A single eye boldly peers out from the composition's center,. The painting's title recalls British Romantic poet Lord Byron's popular poem "The Corsair," an Orientalist tale of Conrad, a pirate, outcast, and antihero."

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