''The Soothsayer's Recompense'' is a 1913 painting by Italian painter

Giorgio de Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...

. It is now in the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

as part of the permanent collection. It was accessioned in 1950 as one of the thousand items donated to the institution by Walter and Louise Arensberg. The piece was created in France, through a process of "squaring-up" in which Chirico drew a version of the piece divided into nine squares, and subsequently used this draft to quickly create the fleshed-out painting.

Subject matter

The piece depicts an empty city square, a recurring motif in works by Chirico. It also features a locomotive in the background, another recurring motif also found in ''

Le Rêve Transformé ''Le Rêve Transformé'' () is a 1913 painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. ...

'' and ''

Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure) ''Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)'' (Italian: ''La stazione di Montparnasse)'' (1914) is a painting by the Italy, Italian Metaphysical art, metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. Many of de Chirico's works were inspired by the i ...

''. The statue at the center of the painting is meant to represent

Ariadne Ariadne (; grc-gre, Ἀριάδνη; la, Ariadne) was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for having ...

, who was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete. She assisted

Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describe ...

in his escape from the

Labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...

, but he later abandoned her on the island of Naxos. Like the locomotive and empty square, Ariadne appears in other paintings by Chirico.

Display history

''The Soothsayer's Recompense'' is currently owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and was first shown there in 1954. It originally hung in the home of the Arensberg family, where it inspired Philip Guston to become a painter. Since being accessioned by its current owner, it has been shown elsewhere, including twice at the

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is a museum in Canonbury Square in the district of Islington on the northern fringes of central London. It is the United Kingdom's only gallery devoted to modern Italian art and is a registered ch ...

in 2003 and again in 2014, and at the Institute of Contemporary Art in 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soothsayer's Recompense 1913 paintings Paintings by Giorgio de Chirico Paintings in the Philadelphia Museum of Art Trains in art Ariadne Paintings of Greek myths