Quote:
Dear friends,

I am so glad to see you are enjoying this thread. To be sure, only Dali can get such amount of attention and excitation at his works. At any rate, I thank you all for the great feedback you are bringing in.

The fact is, I too am most of the time at a loss when trying to understand Dali's works. I think I have previously told you that I usually try to start these threads unencumbered by any excess of knowledge or opinions about the featured artist as, in my opinion, it might prove too heavy a burden and spoil spontaneity. In most cases, I will bid on spontaneity.

So one of the things I am observing now in many of Dali's works is the importance given to vertical objects. I am thinking of the lances, the crosses and, now, the crutches - which not only can be used to carry heavy loads but, perhaps more importantly, as essentially apt to get things to a vertical position.

Also, when we featured Caspar David Friedrich, I remember a point was made of the steeples in his churches signaling to his obvious aspiration, almost to the point of obsession, to one day attaining to the spiritual realm.

So my point is: Could this apparent obsession, now in Dali's case, explain his approaching the famous Velazquez's Surrender of Breda with its main motive - the multitude of lances vertically set on the ground - to use it in his own The Discovery of America?

Note that this work, according to Wikipedia, contains numerous references to the works of Diego Velázquez, specifically The Surrender of Breda, a Spanish painter who had died 300 years earlier, and who influenced both Dalí's painting and his moustache. Dali borrows the spears from that painting and places them on the right hand side of his work. Within these spears, Dali has painted the image of a crucified Christ, which was based on a drawing by the Spanish mystic, St. John.

I have already mentioned this predilection of Dali - almost a fixation - for Diego Velazquez and his work. At one point, he even took to virtually imitating several of Velazquez's best known master works (yet evidencing in them his own style). (I hope to show a few of these soon in this thread.)

Diego Velazquez - The Surrender of Breda (aka The Lances)
(oil on canvas, 1634-35)

Salvador Dali - The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
(oil on canvas, 1958-59)

Miguel,

Good points.

Although I have probably distorted proportions a little in reducing your posting it does show how similar the compositions are despite their different subject.

I could eat both of these pictures, they are so delicious.

I could hardly bear not to bring Velasquez Painting the Infanta Margarita with the Lights and Shadows of His Own Glory here to this forum but I'm sure that you will want to.

Roger

The Gala Portraits
(II)

Salvador Dali - Leda Atomica (oil on canvas, 1949)

Beautiful and again, thought provoking.

I need time to digest.

Back soon.

Roger