(Volos, Greece 1888–1978 Rome) Il consolatore, 1970, bronze with dark silver patina, signed G. de Chirico, number 6/9, with foundry mark: Fonderia Artistica GI. BI. ESSE, Verona, Italy, 34 x 19.5 x 19 cm, (PP)

This work is registered at the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico as inventory no.524.

A copy of this sculpture was presented to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris by Isabella Far de Chirico, where it is now on display.

Provenance: Private Collection, Italy

Exhibitions: Hannover, Giorgio de Chirico, Kestnergesellschaft in der Orangerie Herrenhausen, July - August 1970 (another cast);
Milan, Giorgio de Chirico, Palazzo Reale, April - May 1970 (another cast);
Ferrara, I de Chirico di De Chirico, Palazzo dei Diamanti, October - December 1970 (another cast);
Milan, Omaggio a Giorgio, Galleria A. Iolas, 1970 (another cast);
Milan, Giorgio De Chirico sculture: 1968–1971, Galleria A. Schubert, November - December 1971 (another cast);
New York (touring exhibition), De Chirico by De Chirico, The New York Cultural Centre, January - April 1972 and Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, June - July 1972 (another cast);
Geneva, Giorgio de Chirico, Galleria Rotta, 1973 (another cast);
Kamakura (touring exhibition), De Chirico, presenta De Chirico, Museum of Modern Art, November - December 1973 und Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya Museums of Modern Art, 1974 (another cast);
Paris, Hommage à Giorgio de Chirico, Galerie F. Petit, 1974 (another cast);
London, Giorgio de Chirico, Wildenstein Gallery, April 1976 (another cast);
Cremona, Il grande metafisico - Giorgio de Chirico Scultore, Palazzo Trecchi, March - May 2004, exh. cat. pp. 190/191 with ill. (another cast)

Literature: C. Bruni Sakraischick, Catalogo generale Giorgio de Chirico, Electa, Milan, 1972, vol. III, part 3, no. 305 with ill. (another cast);
G. Dalla Chiesa, De Chirico scultore, G. Mondadri edit., Milan, 1988, no. 24 pp. 88/89 with ill. (another cast)

Among the models that influenced Giorgio de Chirico, F. Nietzsche and Arnold Böcklin also dealt with the themes of melancholy and consolation. The iconography of this sculpture reappears with some variations in a few paintings entitled ‘The Poet and His Muse’ from the early 1920s onwards, and later resurfaces in another painting executed around 1956. The same theme occurs - in the same spirit and with the same title, but with a different form - in an oil on canvas executed in 1929, ‘The Consoler’, a work of great visual effect for its extraordinary beauty and its exceptional dimensions. The same subject, chosen once more in 1968, seems to be the closest model for this sculpture.