Art is the fatal net which catches these strange moments on the wing like mysterious butterflies, fleeing the innocence and distraction of common men.

Some comparison can be made to the long takes in Antonioni's films from the 1960s in which the camera continues to linger on desolate cityscapes populated by a few distant figures or none at all in the absence of the film's protagonists. It was the city of Nietzsche. Writers who have appreciated De Chirico include John Ashbery who has called Hebdomeros "probably.

Giorgio de Chirico (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo deˈkiːriko]; July 10 1888 – November 20 1978) was a Greek-born Italian artist. After 1919 he became interested in traditional painting techniques and worked in a neoclassical or neo-Baroque style while frequently revisiting the metaphysical themes of his earlier work.