"Metamorphoses of Narcissus" - a painting by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali , written in 1937 . Currently located at the Tate Gallery in London .
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| Salvador Dali | ||
| Metamorphoses of Narcissus . 1937 | ||
| Oil on canvas . 50.8 × 78.3 cm | ||
| Tate Gallery , London | ||
| ( inv. ) | ||
Information about the picture
Dali created this picture and wrote a great poem commenting on it, returning to Paris after his tremendous success in America. According to ancient Greek myth, Narcissus was an unusually handsome young man who saw his reflection in the waters of the spring and fell in love with him. According to one version, he wondered, unable to satisfy his passion, however, a more dramatic version tells us that he leaned toward the water to hug his reflection, fell there and drowned. Subsequently, the gods turned it into a flower of a daffodil. Dali depicts Narcissus sitting by the water and looking into it, and next to it is a crumbling stone that closely follows the shape of his figure, but is perceived differently, like a hand holding a bulb or an egg with a flower growing from it. In the background, a group of naked people is gesturing, while a third daffodil figure appears on the horizon [2] .
The essence of metamorphosis is the transformation of the figure of a daffodil into a huge stone hand, and the head into an egg (or bulb). Dali uses the Spanish proverb “Bulb in the head has sprouted”, which denotes obsessions and complexes. The narcissism of a young man is such a complex. The golden skin of Narcissus is a reference to the dictum of Ovid (whose poem “Metamorphoses”, which recounted, including Narcissus, was inspired by the idea of the picture): “the golden wax slowly melts and drains from the fire ... love melts and drains away”. One of Dali’s most sincere paintings: the last lines of the poem about Narcissus, written by the artist to his picture, directly lead to this:
You know gala |
To achieve the desired colors and create the necessary visual effect, Dali had to work with exotic, rare colors: black ivory, Windsor red, cobalt green, Prussian blue and others.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-metamorphosis-of-narcissus-t02343
- ↑ Metamorphoses of Narcissus . Date of treatment August 16, 2009. Archived June 16, 2012.
Links
- “Metamorphoses of Narcissus” in the Tate Gallery database
- Metamorphoses of Narcissus in the gallery of works by Salvador Dali