Emplastic Oil - Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico

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SALVATORE VACANTI: FROM MURAL PAINTING TO “EMPLASTIC OIL”
fig. 4 A. Savinio, Creta, 1932, tempera and oil on canvas,
Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Rome
The artists were asked to participate in a collective
and social-minded undertaking, engendering
the flashpoint in the debate on the rebirth of
mural painting in Italy and its techniques. Giorgio
de Chirico was invited to realize a large mural
painting in the Salone delle Cerimonie (Hall of
Ceremonies), together with Campigli, Funi,
Severini and Sironi himself. The work, entitled
Cultura italiana (Italian Culture) (figs. 2-3), was
executed on fifteen square metres on the back wall
of the Hall opposite of Sironi’s solemn wall-painting,
and was documented in reproductions published
in magazines of the period. 18 The mural
painting framed iconographical elements typical of
de Chirico’s recent production: the horse-statue,
fragments of Greek temples, a cast of a Hellenistic
head, the painter at his easel. In the background
were symbols of Florence, Bologna and Rome, whilst the scene was peopled with poets, literati,
painters, sculptors and musicians, with details reminiscent of the costumes that he was then preparing
for Vicenzo Bellini’s I Puritani, commissioned by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. The painter
so recounts the undertaking:
During this period I executed a large mural painting at the Palazzo della Triennale in Milan. I executed
it very quickly and in extremely difficult circumstances, using the egg tempera process, and this
painting cost me the sum of 150 lire in eggs alone. […] My mural painting gave rise to much envy; it
was not reproduced in the newspapers or even in the illustrated leaflets […]. After the exhibition had
ended, all the paintings in this room were destroyed, probably because they did not dare, owing to
possible scandal, to destroy just mine. 19
In reality, all the works were later destroyed because they were originally intended to be temporary.
From a practical standpoint, Sironi’s first great attempt in mural painting was ultimately a
failure as all works displayed alterations before long. 20 The problem partly arose because of the limited
time allotted to execution and also due to the lack of proper technical preparation in mural
painting by any of the artists (including de Chirico). Indeed, the technique of “buon fresco” 21 had
18
See M. Fagiolo dell’Arco, op. cit. 1995, pp. 140-142.
19
G. de Chirico, The Memoirs…, cit., p. 127.
20
See G. Germani. La pittura murale italiana nel Novecento: tecniche e materiali, in Le pitture murali, edited by C. Danti, M. Matteini, A. Moles, Centro
Di, Florence 1990. pp. 103-120.
21
Originally, fresco was carried out with mineral pigments which are simply diluted in water and is secured by the carbonation of calcium hydrate.
With significant regional variations, it is, since antiquity, the most well known technique for mural painting. The systematic procedure prescribes a
METAPHYSICAL ART 2010|N° 9/10