The Rose Tower

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

The Rose Tower is a monument of Giorgio de Chirico's early, "metaphysical" period. An ancient Roman tower (perhaps of the Tomb of Caecilia Metella or Turin's Porta Palatina) looms at center, from behind a low brick wall. The horse refers to the equestrian statue of Carlo Alberto in Turin, and by extension to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (who had once lived in an apartment overlooking the statue). The rectangular structure faintly visible at front-center recurs in many of de Chirico's paintings as both fountains and tombs. De Chirico intended for this pastiche of monuments, made strange by the raking light, to form an image of Nietzsche's metaphysics: existential absurdity (best exposed by limpid geometries), the power of the individual to make their own meaning, and the "eternal return" of events and motifs.

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