The Double Dream of Spring

The Double Dream of Spring
ArtistGiorgio de Chirico
Year1915
Catalogue78956
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions56.2 cm × 54.3 cm (22+1⁄8 in × 21+3⁄8 in)
Location
Accession138.1957

The Double Dream of Spring (also known as Doppio Sogno di Primavera, 1915) is a painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is held at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York.

Description

The painting depicts apparently related but separate scenes. The scene on the left shows a statue of a man in a frock-coat from behind. The statue appears to be staring contemplatively into an open sky. The two scenes are separated in the middle by a wooden beam, perhaps part of an easel. Near the base of the beam is a blueprint drawing of an interior, in which large arches and a window open onto a landscape including the stick-like figures of two men meeting, and distant mountains. The scene on the right appears to be looking down on the same landscape from a slightly different angle. Above the landscape is the shape of the head of a tailor's dummy.

Similar dummies appear many times in de Chirico's work (cf. The Seer). This time the dummy's head looms over the landscape like a hot air balloon.

The title was used by John Ashbery for his 1970 book of poems.

References

  1. ↑ Museum of Modern Art
  2. ↑ Lynn Gamwell, Dreams 1900-2000: Science, Art, and the Unconscious Mind, Cornell University Press, 2000, p. 29