A reflexão sobre a melancolia, na produção estética de Giorgio De Chirico, compõe o arcabouço da presente pesquisa. Neste estudo, são considerados sentimentos e ressentimentos que permeiam aspectos biográficos e estéticos ligados direta e/ou indiretamente às questões da melancolia na obra do artista Giorgio De Chirico. A constituição melancólica de sua produção seria sustentada pelas referências do artista? Isto é, a reconhecida influência de filósofos como, Nietzsche e Schopenhauer e de artistas como Arnold Böcklin e Max Klinger forneceria o embasamento à postura melancólica de De Chirico? O contexto vivido na Europa, no século XX (cercado por duas Guerras Mundiais) contribuiu para a adoção desta condição? As circunstâncias biográficas direcionariam o artista para a expressão da melancolia em seus trabalhos? E, por fim, De Chirico utilizaria o que poderia se chamar de uma estética da melancolia como um dos eixos de sua reflexão poética? A elucidação dessas perguntas pode residir nas fontes históricas que unem melancolia e arte desde os escritos dos filósofos gregos, passando pelas questões do Renascimento e chegando ao ideário moderno do qual De Chirico é fruto. / The melancholy reflection on the aesthetic production of Giorgio De Chirico makes up the framework of this research. In this study, the feelings and resentments that permeate biographical and aesthetic aspects related directly or indirectly to issues of melancholy in Giorgio De Chiricos works are considered. Would the melancholy constitution of his production be sustained by the references of the artist? That is, would the recognized influence of philosophers like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and artists such as Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger provide the basis for de Chirico\'s melancholy posture? Would the context experienced in Europe in the twentieth century (surrounded by two world wars) contribute to the adoption of this condition? Would the biographical circumstances steer the artist towards the expression of melancholy in his works? Finally, would De Chirico make use of what might be called an \"aesthetics of melancholy as one of the pillars of his poetic reflection? The elucidation of these questions may lie in the historical sources that combine art and melancholy from the writings of the Greek philosophers, through questions of the Renaissance and coming to modern ideas - of which De Chirico is a result.

A reflexão sobre a melancolia, na produção estética de Giorgio De Chirico, compõe o arcabouço da presente pesquisa. Neste estudo, são considerados sentimentos e ressentimentos que permeiam aspectos biográficos e estéticos ligados direta e/ou indiretamente às questões da melancolia na obra do artista Giorgio De Chirico. A constituição melancólica de sua produção seria sustentada pelas referências do artista? Isto é, a reconhecida influência de filósofos como, Nietzsche e Schopenhauer e de artistas como Arnold Böcklin e Max Klinger forneceria o embasamento à postura melancólica de De Chirico? O contexto vivido na Europa, no século XX (cercado por duas Guerras Mundiais) contribuiu para a adoção desta condição? As circunstâncias biográficas direcionariam o artista para a expressão da melancolia em seus trabalhos? E, por fim, De Chirico utilizaria o que poderia se chamar de uma estética da melancolia como um dos eixos de sua reflexão poética? A elucidação dessas perguntas pode residir nas fontes históricas que unem melancolia e arte desde os escritos dos filósofos gregos, passando pelas questões do Renascimento e chegando ao ideário moderno do qual De Chirico é fruto. / The melancholy reflection on the aesthetic production of Giorgio De Chirico makes up the framework of this research. In this study, the feelings and resentments that permeate biographical and aesthetic aspects related directly or indirectly to issues of melancholy in Giorgio De Chiricos works are considered. Would the melancholy constitution of his production be sustained by the references of the artist? That is, would the recognized influence of philosophers like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and artists such as Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger provide the basis for de Chirico\'s melancholy posture? Would the context experienced in Europe in the twentieth century (surrounded by two world wars) contribute to the adoption of this condition? Would the biographical circumstances steer the artist towards the expression of melancholy in his works? Finally, would De Chirico make use of what might be called an \"aesthetics of melancholy as one of the pillars of his poetic reflection? The elucidation of these questions may lie in the historical sources that combine art and melancholy from the writings of the Greek philosophers, through questions of the Renaissance and coming to modern ideas - of which De Chirico is a result.

My paintings emerge from within a context best explained by reference to Nietzsche's perspectivism. That is an intellectual attitude that deprivileges rationalism and accommodates scepticism or unknowing as an acceptable starting point From this standpoint art/language can be seen as being in a state of becoming rather than as representing a state of being. This thesis aims to demonstrate, not only by a philosophical encounter with Giorgio de Chirico's work: ie. his use of myth, his Nietzschean perspectivism and his enigmatic interpretation of figuration, that the most helpful context and understanding of my work can be realied. De Chirico's art, like Nietzsche's philosophy seeks in its processes to explore the possible unity of Dionysian aesthetic force with the Apollonian. Neither Nietzsche nor de Chirico considered within a post-Socratic world that this unity was realizable. Nevertheless they both share in their respective art forms a need to represent the relentless struggle to enact the disjunction of the two aesthetic forces in a secular world. The artist’s enigmatic imagery is characterized by a consideration of appearance and reality and it is for this reason that the work was selected as a model for investigating the nature of enigma. His use of seemingly straightforward, ordinary images suggests a sense of accessibility, yet at the same time they are irreducible to knowing and my own image-making was greatly expanded by investigating these concerns. I am not arguing that de Chirico was influenced by Nietzsche but instead that Nietzsche's philosophical point of view and his use of poetic language to express these views lay in discovering the qualities and substance of the Dionysian spirit As well as working within a Nietzschean world-view set out in The Birth of Tragedy, de Chirico has also drawn on the Italian unification, specifically the Risorgimento and the lineage of these political and mythical figures were endemic to his art and they interface the with his use of the Apollonian-Dionysian disunity first explored by Nietzsche. The focus of the exegesis will be to present the poetic and philosophical use made of the latter in de Chirico’s art It is anticipated that this philosophical encounter with the aesthetic, social and political world of de Chirico will, not only assist in interpreting his life's work anew, but will also provide a context in which my paintings of enigma might be interpreted.