Paesaggio con ruderi, cavalli e cavalieri (cavallo che beve)

The lower left-hand corner of the painting bears the artist’s signature and the year, 1955. Unfolding along the horizontal plane, the image recalls the landscapes and narrative paintings that De Chirico began producing in the 1920s, which in the 1950s turned more baroque in style. A blinding light emanates from the background, flooding the entire scene and throwing into sharp relief the ruins, personages and rambling vegetation in the foreground. The greenery and dark, ominous clouds that suggest an oncoming storm create what is almost a frame, which functions as a repoussoir to the vision. The condensed, curling brushstrokes, animate the various figures and make the horses’ manes and tails come vividly to life.
The left-hand side of the painting is occupied by scattered ruins that dot the slopes of a wooded hill upon whose summit stands one last ruin. This section of the countryside, which is in shadow, is brightened by the light that glances off the edges of the ruins, creating a strong tonal contrast. To the far right is a ruddy sunset; elsewhere the sky turns blue and an intense light from the distant horizon seeps into the countryside, bouncing off the surface of the crystalline water of a gushing stream in the foreground.
The scene is populated by figures in various poses. A woman in folk dress holds a child in her arms. A young man stands beside her, naked save for a loincloth. One hand grasps a red cloak that falls to the ground, in the other he holds the reins of a horse that has taken fright. Further to the right is a knight with a plumed helmet, wrapped in a flowing cloak, depicted as he mounts a white steed. Towards the foreground a peasant is watering his horse at the fresh brook, while a lone female figure concludes the group on the right.
There are similarities between this work and the sets painted by De Chirico for the staging of Don Quixote at the “Maggio Musicale Festival” held in Florence in 1952.