so was the ico cover art inspired by giorgio de chirico’s art??
Yes. Though not entirely. It was discovered last year, by Reddit user GutereuxMarde that the composition of ICO's Japanese and European cover art was directly lifted from "Tropique du Cancer" a painting from 1945 by Ramsès Younan.
Younan was clearly paying homage to several contemporary artists of his age. Perhaps in an effort to define the voices that made up the surrealist movement. You can see, at the center of the scene, easels with recreated paintings. There's both a Picasso piece ("Tête de femme au chapeau bleu a ruban rouge"), and a Salvador Dalí painting ("Atavistic Vestiges After the Rain"). And obviously, the surrounding architecture is very much inspired by Giorgio de Chirico. I'm not an expert, but I believe those particular mannequin models to the left are Younan's own personal touch on the piece. The portion lifted for the cover of ICO, seen at the right end, was not directly lifted from one of de Chirico's pieces as far as I know. Which makes it all the more curious that Fumito Ueda seemed to confirm it was based on de Chirico in an interview, rather than the lesser known Younan:
OPM: The Japanese cover of Ico is a clever homage to the surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico. Was Ico inspired by de Chirico? FU: I designed the Japanese cover, and I thought the surrealistic world of de Chirico matched the allegoric world of Ico.
[Source] (Note: 'Designed' does not mean he painted it. That's a common misconception. It likely means he just added the elements that weren't in the original composition as a sketch layer and, obviously, that he had to approve of the final product. Credit should go to Nanako Ohmura and Chika Fukui for digitally painting and touching up what Ueda outlined.) But then, as noticed recently by some members of the Team ICO community, evidence was found (in the Shadow of the Colossus art book, Page 203) to suggest that a prototype cover for ICO instead took its composition directly from de Chirico. A PlayStation 2 cover that seems to display 'Nostalgia of the Infinite' is seen below, nestled among other prototype covers, including the cover of a PS1 ICO disc.
We don't have confirmation that this is for ICO, but it would explain why Ueda so readily credited the wrong painter. The team had probably looked through a number of the popular artist's paintings, but came to agree upon a work which they either believed to have belonged to him, or was close enough for Ueda to have forgotten it was by someone else.
this is amazing info, thank you!