''The Enigma of the Hour'' is a 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. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...

. He created the work during his early period, in Florence, when he focused on metaphysical depictions of town squares and other urban environments. It is not clear whether it was dated 1910 or 1911. ''The Enigma'' depicts an urban scene with the classical architecture and angular lighting that are Chirico's hallmarks. Several figures around the scene have vague features, to give the sense that they are absent. Above the scene is a large clock that reads five minutes to three. Luca Cottini referred to the clock as "... uggestingthe paradox of an 'eternal present,' located on the edge of a-temporal revelation and moving temporality, and nactingthe enigma of its nature." Peter G. Toohey has asserted the figure in white represents Odysseus.

References

1910s paintings Paintings by Giorgio de Chirico {{20C-painting-stub