The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street
By Giorgio de Chirico， 1914
The Italian artist, Giorgio de Chirico, was one of the famous artists of the scuola metafisica art movement that championed the expression of immovable, frozen picture using a combination of virtual reality and unreasonable objects to reveal some complicated emotions that are unspeakable.
A street all about mystery and melancholy, a little girl bowling her hoops toward the shadowed area, an uncanny atmosphere, surrealism impression, frozen time and movement, endless loneliness, nightmare-like lightening and unusual perspective, and ghost-like silhouette made up this memorable painting, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street.
On the right of the painting is a palace covered in dark brown and grey shadows, while on the left lies a white arcade that stretches endlessly toward the end of the painting. The sky is grey, giving almost no light to the street. Nevertheless, the street is lightened up. On the bottom left corner of the painting is a lonely girl bowling her hoop. Her shadow extends into the painting, making it look like she just entered this melancholy world. In contrast, what we see here is a shadow, with its owner indiscernible.
The Castle
Kafka
IT was late in the evening when K. arrived, The village was J. deep in snow. The Castle hill was hidden, veiled in mist and darkness, nor was there even a glimmer of light to show that a castle was there. On the wooden bridge leading from the main road to the village, K. stood for a long time gazing into the illusory emptiness above him.
Comparison
In comparison, the similarity between the text and the painting is obvious, the effect created —— absurd, helpless and pessimistic foreboding on future.
In comparison, the similarity between the text and the painting is obvious; the effect created an absurd, helpless and pessimistic foreboding of the future.
However, these similarities in feeling are not created by similar historical period or similar cultural backgrounds, but they are created by the context and emotion in the artwork. For instance, millions of art pieces, including paintings, literatures, music, film and plays are created under expressionism; however, one cannot say that each of two pieces of art from two different art forms will create the same feeling. Although people had the same ideas in a similar historical period, it would not have the same effect on them.
Both Giorgio de Chirico and Kafka have been affected by the ideas of existentialism, in which the most similar between the two of them is the use of symbolism. However, Giorgio de Chirico embraced more of idealism in Nietzsche's philosophy theory, the visible world and events are all a mirror of one's spirit, while Kafka applies more of Kierkegaard's philosophy theory, l'existence précède l'essence — the existence of human beings is passive, which means that events are neither objective nor subjective.
However, apart from the similarities in context between these two art pieces, there are some differences. Chirico's street is a space full of sadness and pessimism, while Kafka's castle refers to a spiritual labyrinth, which could be a system, an organization, or an emotional reflection; it could be a paradise, the reality, or the absolute truth. Therefore, there could be a lot more to the castle in terms of spirit.
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