The Sweet Afternoon

The sweet afternoon was among the pieces I’ve admired the most at the De Chirico exhibition at Palazzo Reale in Milan this November. Definitely one of the most mind blowing exhibitions I’ve seen in a couple of years. It is that feeling that you may go home from the museum, but the artworks come, in a way , with you. I believe it is a huge privilege to be able to see artists works from a lifetime span in a continuous setting , curated and explained in a most fascinating way. I guess the closest approximation of what a talk with the artist could have been. And this could have been a tremendously interesting conversation. But then, on the other hand, how could a painter ever tell more as his painting can? Even more so as de Chirico is definitely a painter of solitude. And the solitude is the feeling I bear with me, too, all the time. It is the state I love and need the most when I work. It is the feeling I need to contemplate, It is the ultimate state of mind giving me peace. I guess this is the reason I love de Chirico painting that much. In The Sweet Afternoon the solitude is literally inhabiting the lonely piazza, a certain enigma of afternoon siesta is in the air. The trembling of the hot air in the piazza comes just to the open window where biscuits wait, neatly arranged on the tray, suggesting the warm proximity of somebody. Mediterranean siesta is the time of the afternoon when heat empties the piazzas, streets and parks. when people spend a couple of hours at home, hidden before the heat, public life disappears and turns towns into great solitude. My still life evolved fromthe blue tray and biscuits. Mine are biscuits with lemon glaze I’ve backed , and there are my violets on the table, for I always have to have flowers around me. And I have to have brushes, palette knifes and tubes of oil color. All that arranged on my table by the window, together with the ticket from de Chirico exibition in Milan. The view offers a landscape that continues into the green color of the table. Just my way of solitude.

Pictures above:

The Sweet Afternoon, Tamara Jare after de Chirico, 2019, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm

The Sweet Afternoon, Il pomeriggio soave (Le Doux Après-midi), de Chirico, 1916, oil in canvas, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, Venice. Photo taken by me at the de Chirico exibition in Palazzo Reale, Milano.