Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was an Italian painter who pioneered Metaphysical Painting with deserted plazas, classical statues, long shadows, and unsettling spaces.
Painter
Carlo Carrà
Carlo Carrà was an Italian painter who moved from Futurist scenes of crowds and speed to the eerie objects and stillness of Metaphysical Painting.
Carlo Carrà quick facts
Carrà helped establish Futurist painting before turning to quiet, geometrically arranged objects during his Metaphysical period in northern Italy.
| Full name | Carlo Dalmazzo Carrà |
|---|---|
| Born | 1881 · Quargnento, Italy |
| Died | 1966 · Milan, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Movements | Futurism; Metaphysical Painting |
| Paint types | Oil paint · Tempera paint |
| Other media | — |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Wood (oil panels) |
| Painting methods | Oil-painted crowds with broken forms and sweeping diagonals; later measured still-life objects in enclosed Metaphysical spaces |
| Common subjects | Crowds, riots, city cafés, bottles, mannequins, toys, studios, and geometrically arranged household objects |
| Notable works | The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli · Still Life with Triangle · The Metaphysical Muse |
Sources: Palazzo Citterio: The Metaphysical Muse, oil on canvas, MoMA: Still Life with Triangle, oil on canvas, MoMA: Carlo Carrà collection and works, University of São Paulo Museum of Contemporary Art: Carlo Carrà biography.
Paint types used by Carlo Carrà
Carrà used oil for Futurist scenes and Metaphysical paintings; tempera appears here only when a collection record identifies it for a specific work.
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Oil paint
Carrà’s Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1910–11) is oil on canvas, with banners and charging figures arranged around a street struggle. In Still Life with Triangle and The Metaphysical Muse (both 1917), he used oil for quieter, tightly ordered arrangements of objects. The medium continued as his imagery shifted from Futurist movement to measured stillness.
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Tempera paint
Carrà combined tempera with pen, mica powder, and paper collage on cardboard in Interventionist Demonstration (1914). The paint is one layer in a constructed Futurist work that also incorporates drawn and collaged materials. This example differs from the oil-on-canvas paintings that make up much of his later practice.
Sources: MoMA: Funeral of the Anarchist Galli, oil on canvas, MoMA: Still Life with Triangle, oil on canvas, and Palazzo Citterio: The Metaphysical Muse, oil on canvas; Peggy Guggenheim Collection: Interventionist Demonstration, tempera and collage; Italian Ministry of Culture: tempera work by Carrà.
Painting surfaces used by Carlo Carrà
Carrà’s paintings are documented on canvas in both Futurist and Metaphysical periods; examples show this support across distinct subjects and styles.
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Canvas
Carrà’s The Metaphysical Muse and Still Life with Triangle are oil on canvas, as is the earlier Funeral of the Anarchist Galli. The support carries both his Futurist crowd scenes and later metaphysical still lifes. These records document canvas across distinct phases of his work, separate from cardboard used in a collage painting.
Sources: Palazzo Citterio: The Metaphysical Muse, oil on canvas, MoMA: Still Life with Triangle, oil on canvas, MoMA: Carlo Carrà collection and works, University of São Paulo Museum of Contemporary Art: Carlo Carrà biography.
Painters similar to Carlo Carrà
De Chirico shared Carrà's Metaphysical experiments, while Boccioni was a fellow Futurist during Carrà's earlier exploration of modern movement.
Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni was an Italian Futurist painter who transformed crowded cities, moving figures, and modern emotions into fractured, dynamic forms.