Giorgio de Chirico’s 1914 painting showing a rubber glove, classical head and ball in an empty cityscape is The Song of Love.
The work combines objects that do not normally belong together: a red rubber glove, a marble-like classical head and a green ball. They appear against a wall beside an arcade and a distant locomotive. De Chirico’s silent, deserted architecture and abrupt object combinations became highly influential for later Surrealists.
The painting predates the official founding of the Surrealist movement, but artists including André Breton regarded de Chirico as a crucial precursor. Its atmosphere comes from metaphysical painting rather than from a literal story. The title suggests music or emotion while the image offers no conventional scene of lovers or performance. The Museum of Modern Art in New York owns The Song of Love, which is often cited as an important bridge between early twentieth-century metaphysical art and Surrealism.