The City Rises, Umberto Boccioni

• In keeping with Boccioni’s conception of a universal dynamism uniting all things...


  ...the flecks of paint suggest molecules of physical matter constantly changing to form new objects and energy.
• Composition


  Nothing appears stable as the composition surges upward.
• Figures and setting


  The figures create powerful diagonals rising from right to left in the foreground. A second diagonal rises from left to right in the background, where the scene recedes into cloudy, angled vistas of industrial smokestacks.
• Figures and forms


  • The figures in The City Rises have no faces and do not represent specific individuals.
  • They are part of the city’s crowd, units in a potentially overwhelming force — the new masses of the modern city.
  • The figures in the crowd intertwine with each other, blurred, farther and smaller in space.
  • Because of their incessant speed and movement, the working men and horses look weightless. They seem to slide swiftly in front of the viewer, despite their exhausting physical efforts.
• Context


  The Futurists celebrated the vigor of the urban masses and even tried to incite riot and rebellion by insulting their audiences during aggressive public performances of their poetry and manifestos.
• Description


  The painting shows a construction site on the periphery of Milan

  Where men, horses, and machines relentlessly work to build a new modern city.
• Foreground + background


  In the foreground, some men try to tame five skittish horses. In the background, trams, scaffolding of industries under construction, and smokestacks increase the sense of movement and speed, which are the two essential elements of the painting.
• How the use of line creates dynamism and movement

  • Movement is conveyed by the manifold lines that chaotically aim at every direction on the canvas.
  • Vertical lines project the city towards the sky and beyond the canvas itself.
  • spiral lines raise up to the sky from the horses’ necks like tornadoes
  • s-shaped curvilinear lines describe the swirling movement of men and horses.
• Light/shadow


  An explosion of light illuminates and surrounds all the figures.

  Light plays an energetic role of sustaining tired workers with new force and power, and of emphasizing the rise of the new modern city.
• Brushwork


  • The whole artwork shows rapid and filamentous brushstrokes, which increase the dynamism and energy invading the scene. This painting technique is called Divisionism, and employs directional brushstrokes that highlight the movement of figures.
  • Through this technique, the masses of colour that merge together and collide against each other generate an enthralling dynamic effect.
• Space


  • Because the scene was not depicted from reality, but from the artist’s mental vision.
  • The purpose of the artist is not principally to celebrate the rise of the modern city, with all the hope and renovation it might bring, but rather to emphasize and praise the relentless movement and progress that working men and horses undertake.
• Energy and power within the painting

  The City Rises shows that the way to promote progress and build the modern city is work. Boccioni gave innate power and energy to men and horses, praising their heroic actions. The focus is on their agitated bodies, whose muscles are extremely in tension and stretched out as if they were about to tear apart.
• Symbolism of the horses

  The untamed horses symbolize the vitality and dynamism of the evolving city. The majestic red horse in the foreground generates a powerful vortex that captures both the workers and the observers. This is a visual metaphor for the relentless progress that drags everything along with it and that cannot be halted.
• Rosalind McKever CQ


  "Dynamism is the device that Boccioni uses to surpass sensorial reality."
• Provenance


  In 1912, the picture was bought by the musician Ferruccio Busoni during the travelling futurist art exposition in Europe.