Metaphysical Still Life 1918

This enigmatic still life was painted by Giorgio Morandi, likely around 1918. It features a curious head-like object, encased in a box, a stage for the theatre of the mind. The sphere atop the form, bisected into light and dark, recalls the ancient symbol of the anima and animus, the duality within us all, first explored by the Greeks, and later delved into by Jung. Think of the alchemical emblems where the head signifies the vessel of transformation. Observe how Morandi frames this object, not in reverence, but with an almost clinical detachment, like a specimen under glass. It echoes the Renaissance studiolo, where collected objects served as keys to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos. Morandi perhaps suggests that the true still life is not the arrangement of objects, but the arrangement of ideas, continuously resurrected and re-evaluated in our collective psyche.