#Enigmo definition portable#
#Enigmo definition series#
#Enigmo definition windows#

The feeling it gave rise to formed the basis for a series subsequent paintings, including The Enigma of the Hour. The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon was the concrete product of the Piazza Santa Croce revelation and signaled the beginning of a particularly creative period for de Chirico. He described this moment of revelation as “an enigma ” the concept became central to his art and turns up frequently in the various manuscript texts written between 19 in which de Chirico formulated his early aesthetic philosophy.** As he described it in an early, handwritten text, he was sitting in the Piazza Santa Croce after recuperating from an illness, and consequently was in “a nearly morbid state of sensitivity.” He suddenly felt he was seeing his surroundings for the first time, seeing through their ordinary appearances, in a sense. While there, he had an epiphany that proved to be a turning point in his development as an artist. The word and the concept it represented, which de Chirico understood in a specific and idiomatic way, provided the foundation for the painter’s aesthetic during this period.ĭe Chirico claimed to have discovered enigma in Florence in 1909. Starting with The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon and the slightly earlier The Enigma of the Oracle, which may have been titled retroactively, the word turns up in a number of the paintings de Chirico produced during his metaphysical period, which ran from 1909 to 1919. “Enigma” is the keyword of the painting’s title. Although the hour of Giorgio de Chirico’s great painting The Enigma of the Hour (1910-1911*) can reasonably be disambiguated, the unsettling character-the enigma-of the picture remains. Presumably this is mid-afternoon in late autumn or winter, when the daylight wanes early. The ambiguity of the time of day is cleared up by the clock above the arches, which signals five minutes before three. In either case, what we see is the visual evidence of a disorienting hour when objects and people take on a grey, soft-edged appearance, and distances are difficult to judge. The building and its surrounding space are sunk in shadow at the moment-a moment that could be situated at the beginning or end of the day. One, wrapped in white and facing away from the viewer, is in the foreground by a pool with a small fountain a second huddles in shadow in the shallow space of the building’s interior the third is barely visible at a second-story window just to the left of a clock. There are three human figures coexisting here-coexisting, but effectively isolated from each other. Oddly, the building and piazza feel as if they ought to be deserted, but they aren’t. An open, public space-a piazza of some sort-opens out in front of the building.

#Enigmo definition windows#

A two-story construction with arches on the ground level, rectangular windows at the second level and a tiled roof, it sits at the center of the picture plane, continuing beyond both edges. He's very difficult to figure out an enigma, really.It may be a train station, or one of the arcaded buildings common in Turin and other Italian cities. (mystery, perplexity)Įveryone joked that it was an enigma that the perpetually late employee made it to work on time. How such an inept person became CEO for a major corporation, is truly an enigma. Her enigmatic smile made me wonder what was on her mind. The related adjective is enigmatic, which means 'hard to understand or interpret.' You will often hear anomaly used in a statistical context: if statistically something is supposed to happen, but it doesn't, it's usually characterized as an anomaly.

A paradox is more of a puzzle or a contradiction for example, 'the famous paradox of what came first, the chicken or the egg.' Finally, an anomaly is an irregularity that seems to differ from the norm. Enigma is best used to describe a mystery-either a person or something that is not easily explained or understood. Enigma is similar in meaning to paradox and anomaly. Enigma is a good word to use for things that are rare and puzzling. Today, an enigma is something that's difficult, if not impossible, to explain-something obscure and mysterious.

#Enigmo definition portable#

In the history of cryptography, the Enigma was a portable cipher machine used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages. Mystery, secret, puzzle, paradox, perplexity