Two Horses

De Chirico, the originator of metaphysical painting, created this drawing during a period of transition in his career. Prior to the 1930s, his work paved the way for Surrealism. He explored themes such as nostalgia, enigma, and myth through disjointed spaces. After that decade, he turned to more conservative subjects, studying and copying the old masters and cultivating a neo-baroque style. This work, depicting two statue-like, rearing horses, is part of that transition. De Chirico's drawings and paintings of horses were very successful commercially, thus he drew and painted them prolifically throughout this period. Some dream-like qualities remain in this work: expansive space, disjointed perspective and scale, and the seeming plasticity of the stone ruins.