The Enigma of the Hour is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico.

He created the work during his early period, in Florence,[1] when he focused on metaphysical depictions of town squares and other urban environments.

[1] The Enigma depicts an urban scene with the classical architecture and angular lighting that are Chirico's hallmarks.

[2] Luca Cottini referred to the clock as "...[suggesting] the paradox of an 'eternal present,' located on the edge of a-temporal revelation and moving temporality, and [enacting] the enigma of its nature.

[3] In a way, The Enigma of the Hour can be considered the first conceptual artwork; “the artist did not seek to find a new way of rendering that which is visible, as Picasso did, or to express an emotional state through abstract forms and colors as did Kandinsky; rather, de Chirico’s aspiration was to translate a thought or philosophical concept into the forms of the plastic arts”.