Around 1931, Giorgio de Chirico entered a transitional phase often referred to as his “neoclassical” period or “neo-Italian baroque”, marked by a return to traditional techniques and classical subjects. Having distanced himself definitively from the Parisian surrealists—despite having profoundly influenced their movement with his earlier metaphysical works—de Chirico turned to themes rooted in Renaissance and Baroque art, drawing inspiration from masters like Titian, Rubens, and Ingres.
During this time (circa 1930–1933), he produced a number of idealized female nudes, mythological compositions, and sculptural figures, often imbued with a calm theatricality and a sense of timeless beauty. Bagnante seduta (Seated Bather) is emblematic of this moment: the frontal pose, the classical serenity, and the soft modeling of the flesh reflect a deliberate return to the grandeur and discipline of historical painting. The work is not a simple academic exercise—it is a meditation on form, memory, and the enduring power of the figure.
Critics of the avant-garde saw this as a betrayal of modernism, but for de Chirico, it was a deliberate reaction against what he perceived as the decadence of contemporary art, and an affirmation of the eternal values of painting. Rather than abandon experimentation, he reoriented it towards the metaphysics of tradition, engaging in a paradoxical fusion of the eternal and the personal.
Today, this period is undergoing critical reevaluation. Far from being reactionary, it reveals a complex investigation into identity, myth, and the painter’s place in the long history of Western art.
