The Great Tower

This painting is a variant of the larger-format composition The Nostalgia of the Infinite, from c. 1913. In it, as in many of his works, de Chirico introduces the viewer into a metaphysical world of imagery and symbols. The painting depicts a tall tower standing on a large sand dune, illuminated by the evening sun. Behind the tower there is a steppe landscape, with orange-brown dunes, small houses that look like barns, and sparse vegetation. In the foreground are two people, of small since, that seem insignificant in comparison to the tower. Above all this stretches a heavy and oppressive sky, the color of which smoothly changes from yellow-green at the horizon to dark blue above the top of…