Salvador
Dali, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1946
A
painting by the artist Salvador Dali, it consists of a blue backdrop, black and
grey clouds on the edges of the canvas. A murky yellow infused into the blue
sky. Mostly a brown soft flat landscape but in the far off distance a
silhouette of mountains is barely visible.
There
are five extensively long thin-legged grey elephants, carrying objects on its
back a pink tower, two golden carriages a naked white female in one carriage
and one figure above each of these two carriages. And the other sustains a pointy
gold pyramid with four grey circles within it, the last elephant is short
compared to the others and bears a golden stand supporting a naked white
female. They are positioned in perspective one after another.
Three
Small figures are stationed directly under, a white floating entity and two
black silhouettes facing each other blurred into the horizon.
A white
horse towers over the naked white man on its two long hind legs, as the man
crouches on one knee holding a brown cross in his right hand up towards the
horse. A dark rough white skull is planted in between his legs.
Their spider
like long legs seems unstable. The painting is like a bizarre fairy tail or
dream it is somewhat cartoony, the proportion of the figures are irregular just
like cartoon characters.
The
scale of the animals and what they come with is related to the man, his body
language conveys struggle and defiance. That sense when it becomes too hard to
bear things it appears greater and amplified. The cross (Jesus Christ) is a symbol
of his faith; he uses to defend himself against these strange beings.
Predominantly
these are temptations of lust of the female body, gold wealth and worldly riches, I believe are manifested in his dreams, as a mirror of the physical world and his numerous encounters associated with sin for example, fornication. By Resisting and finding refugee in his faith he finds new strength to endure temptation.
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