Andrea de Chirico Exhibits "The Commedia dell’Arte”, in The Royal Palace of Milan, Italy

Written by Alfredo Luizzi Friday, 27 April 2012 20:53

Milan, Italy.- Alberto Savinio - real name Andrea Francesco Alberto de Chirico - (1891-1952) was an Italian writer, painter, musician, journalist, essayist, playwright, set designer and composer. He was the younger brother of 'metaphysical' painter Giorgio De Chirico. His work often dealt with philosophical and psychological themes, and he also was heavily concerned with the philosophy of art. Early in their lives, Andrea and his brother, Giorgio were nearly inseparable, even referring to themselves as Castor and Pollux, the warrior twins. As children, there was tremendous collaboration between the brothers that led to strong overlap of themes later in life. The most well noted of these overlapping themes was that of the mythical Greek Argonauts, as a metaphor for their development and journey as artists.

Throughout his life, Savinio composed five operas and authored at least forty-seven books, including multiple autobiographies and memoirs. Savinio also extensively wrote and produced works for the theater. Savinio’s work received mixed reviews during his lifetime, often due to his pervasive use of surrealism. He was influenced by and a contemporary of Apollinaire, Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and Fernand Léger.

Now, the Royal Palace in Milan is hosting a retrospective of his work, on view from February 25 to June 12, 2011. The exhibition “The Commedia dell’Arte” tells a story through one hundred works (of which ten have not been exhibited before) of an artistic journey that mixes myth, literature, music, applied arts and theater. This makes him both a man of the Renaissance and Pre-modernism. He is a fascinating character, he fully participated in the cultural storm of the 20th century and his imagination was totally influenced by the surrealist investigations of dreams and the unconscious.



When examining Savinio’s work, it is important to pay attention to his relationship with myths: ruins, ancient temples, statues and legends are the mediums through which he represents the modern spirit.  Besided myths, he proved that literature could also be a subject of painting, as he painted poets, philosophers, muses and dissolved the line between written and painted art.

Savinio was the brother of Giorgio de Chirico. Savinio studied piano and composition at the Athens conservatoire, and later under Max Reger in Munich. His first stay in Paris was from 1911 to 1915, and he published a group of poems he called Les Chants de la Mi-Mort in 1914. He moved to Italy and published his first book, Hermafrodito in 1918. He continued to write ballet music, and his ballet Perseus was performed at the Metropolitan Opera of New York in 1924. During his second stay in Paris, from 1926 to 1934, he began to paint. He took part in several exhibtions in Italy, and he did his own designs for his ballet Vita dell’Uomo, staged in La Scala in 1951. An entire room was set aside for his work at the Venice Biennale in 1954.

The exhibition will also display his work devoted to theater: sketches, apparel and mosaics made especially for La Scala and Piccolo theaters.

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