Giorgio De Chirico first studied drawing and painting at the Athens polytechnic, before he continued his studies at the Munich 'Akademie der Bildenden Künste' from 1906 to 1909. In Munich De Chirico studied Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy and the phantastical image world of Arnold Böklin and Max Klingre, who had a lasting influence on his classical-mythological early works. In 1911 De Chirico went to Paris for four years. A trip to Turin inspired him to paint dream-like cityscapes, which are marked by an disconcerting atmosphere of silence and forlornness and are only populated by statues and 'manichini' (lay figures). During his military service in Ferrara, the artist met the Italian painter Carlo Carrà in 1917, with whom he further developed the technique of 'pittura metafisica'. De Chirico's main works of this stylistic phase include 'Ettore e Andromache' (1917) and 'Le Muse inquietanti' (1918). After the war De Chirico wrote for the journal 'Valori Plastici', which was surrounded by an anti-Avant-garde movement of artists. During the subsequent years the artist dissociates himself from his metaphysical works and turns to the High Rennaissance Classisity of Novecento. In 1920/21 he traveled to Rome and Florence to study the panel and tempera painting techniques of the Old Masters. In 1925 the artist returned to Paris, where his metaphysical works were highly recognized by the Surrealists. Toward the end of the 1920s De Chirico's work showed an increasing tendency toward an emotional neo-Baroque style. At the same time De Chirico published his visionary novel 'Hebdomeros' and worked as an illustrator, stage and costume designer. From 1930 the painter lived between Florence, Milan and Paris, before settling in Rome in 1944. During the 1950s and 1960s De Chirico often referred back to his metaphysical style and his 1920s works. He produced replicas and bronzes from the Ferrara period and continued his series of self-portraits. Despite little innovative late work, De Chirico is one of the central figures of 20th century art. As a pioneer of 'pittura metafisica' he had a far-reaching influence on the stylistic development of Surrealism, Neue Sachlichkeit and Magical Realism. Giorgio De Chirico was appointed to the Paris 'Académie des Beaux-Arts' in 1974 and received the 'Große Bundesverdienstkreuz' of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1976.