De Chirico's Conquest

The warmth and bustle of human activity seem to have receded from this place. The formal features of de Chirico's paintings, although generally overlooked in favor of the subject, are also significant. While the individual objects are rendered realistically, there is no” bravura” in de Chirico's approach. This is the stillness and silence of a
Mediterranean city under the midday sun, but heightened and transformed. The Philosopher's
Conquest, suggests that the picture represents a triumph of the inner world, the painter's conquest of the human psyche. A related drawing, dated no earlier than fall 1913, shows many of the principal features of this painting. The main differences in the drawing are a palm tree in the background, which has been