Hebdomeros: A Novel - (Ekphrasis) by Giorgio de Chirico (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This seminal 1929 surrealist novel by the painter Giorgio de Chirico merges the realms of dream and reality.

In the artist's only novel, de Chirico invites the reader into a world where language, time, space, and meaning are fluid, highlighting themes of mystery, myth, and the uncanny. Following the titular character Hebdomeros as he embarks on a series of philosophical musings and bizarre experiences divorced from a specific place or time, Hebdomeros embraces ambiguity in a profound exploration of the subconscious mind. Highly visual passages evoke the landscapes and compositions of de Chirico's metaphysical paintings, and non sequiturs mirror the freedom that Surrealism allowed for in art of all categories.

An introduction by the scholar Fabio Benzi contextualizes de Chirico's work within a broader modernist framework, highlighting its influence on surrealism and its resonance with the literary and artistic movements of the early twentieth century.

About the Author

Giorgio de Chirico, born in Greece in 1888, was an Italian painter known for founding the Scuola Metafisica art movement, which greatly influenced Surrealism. His most well-known works feature Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins, and disorienting perspectives, inspired by the philosophies of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and by Greek mythology. After 1919, he embraced traditional painting techniques, working in a neoclassical and neo-Baroque style while occasionally returning to metaphysical themes.

Fabio Benzi is considered the world's foremost expert on Giorgio de Chirico. He is a professor at the University of Chieti-Pescara and a board member of Fondazione de Chirico, and he has curated exhibitions in Rome, Venice, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Vienna, New York, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, and London.