Giorgio de Chirico and the Myth of Ariadne - Preview - Brief Article

PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART

While Renaissance artists frequently depict Ariadne bewailing her abandonment by Theseus on the island of Naxos, Giorgia de Chirico shows the princess fast asleep, just before Bacchus wings in on his chariot to rescue her. She is seen as a life-size antique marble sharply lit in Mediterranean midday sun--the personification of estrangement and melancholy. The eight haunting Ariadne paintings of 1912-13 are brought together for the first time in an exhibition selected by the PMA's Michael Taylor; they'll join other versions of the Ariadne myth de Chirico made long after his celebrated Metaphysical period. Nov. 3-Jan. 5; Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, Jan. 22-Apr. 13.

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