Giorgio de Chirico (10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian painter and writer. In the years before World War I, he founded the "Scuola metafisica" art movement. The name means "Metaphysical school". The "Scuola metafisica" was a big influence on the surrealist painters. After 1919, he became interested in more traditional ways of painting. He began to paint in a neoclassical style.