At the beginning of the 20th century the theme of the gladiators was extremely popular in the mass culture. This might be reason why Giorgio de Chirico decided to reproduce them as warriors with a lack of credibility, with an artificial and grotesque nature. Between 1927 and 1929, Giorgio de Chirico painted sixty-one iterations of this same theme. Some of them ended up in the famous Hall des Gladiateurs inside Leonce Rosenberg's apartment in Paris and the reproduction of this masterpiece from 1928 is one of them. Leonce Rosenberg's place was more than an apartment. In fact it was a grandiose and complex artistic endeavour, decorated by some of the most popular painters of the time such as Savinio, Picabia, Leger, Herbin, Metzinger, Valmier, Severini, Ernst and de Chirico himself. In this main-theme De Chirico focused on the powerful effect of the variations on the warrior nude. On the surface, they evoke the classical, virile grandeur of the time. Yet the fallen, limp bodies of these gladiators are the opposite of the academic representation of the splendid male nude. The paintings de Chirico produced portray Gladiators during their schooling, fighting among themselves or with beasts. Some of them are set in open spaces, reminiscent of Roman arenas, other ones constrict the warriors' figures in small, closed rooms, creating an asphyxiating effect.
Dimensions of the poster: h. 68 x 48 cm.
