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The Temptation of St. Anthony is a painting made by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali in 1946. It is a precursor to the body of his work sometimes referred to as his classical period or the Dali Renaissance.

Description

The scene of The Temptation of St. Anthony is set in a desert-like landscape with a low horizon line, a combination of clouds with dark and warm tones, and a cerulean sky. It is painted in a classical style, by the depiction of images in a state of pictorial refinement. The range of the mid section to the top of the painting contains the action: an advancing parade of elephants and one horse, all which walk on long spindly legs. On their backs they carry monumental iconography: a fountain with a statue of a female nude holding her chest, an obelisk, a building complex- confining a female nude- topped with statues, and a vertical tower. The figure below them bears a cross in his right hand, and holds it up in front of the advancement. At his feet there lies a skull, and an ambiguous form, which supports the weight of his body, as he presses his left hand. The subject has been used by artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch circa 1501-1516, throughout art history as well as by authors in literature.
Dali’s interpretation uses classicism, erotisicm, and surrealism to describe the subject. It was originally painted to be submitted into a contest hosted by Albert Levin. If Dali had won, it would have been included in a film version of Buy de Maupassant’s Bel Ami. The piece is significant to Dali’s body of work because it is the first that shows his interest in the intermediates between heaven and earth.

Analysis

The figure in genuflection is assumed to be St. Anthony, whose role, according to spiritual belief, is not to protect one from temptation so much as he is a conductor of temptation. Here he is seen as orchestrating the advancing parade of creatures, topped with various representations of erotic imagery. The rearing horse is to represent the fountain of desire. The obelisk mounted on the elephant’s back is an homage to the Roman obelisk designed by Bernini. The proceeding elephant carries a building construct which is reminiscent of the palladium and the next with a phallic tower. In the clouds behind them, glimpses of El Escorial can be seen- which is to represent spiritual and temporal disorder. During the time this piece was made, contemporaneous artists were concerned with post war concepts in an intellectual and ideological sense. Dali chose to paint subjects that he considered spiritual, and reveal hidden powers in them. He believed that all objects possessed this power, and desired to capture it in his painting and his own possession by painting them. This was inspired by a fascination he had with the atomic bomb, which he found particularly mystic and powerful. By using the artistic style of classicism, Dali’s aim was to use its realism to bring him closer to the spirituality contained in all substances, and therefore, with divine. The piece is the first of his works which use classicism in this way, and is a precursor to other themes which were brought on by this interest in spirituality, such as levitation and the neutralization of gravity

References

Kay, Daniel, accessed Feb/12, 2013, Dali Peep Show, http://www.danielkay.fr/img/ Dali_PeepshowStAntoine_15aout2007_Cerisy.pdf.

Neret, Gilles. Dali, 1994. Bennett, Leonie. Salvador Dali. Chicago, Ill: Heinemann Library, 2005

Dalí, Salvador, Charles Hine, Montserrat Aguer, William Jeffett, David A. Brennan, Elliott H. King, and High Museum of Art. Salvador Dalí: The Late Work. Atlanta [GA.]: High Museum of Art, 2010.

Dalí, Salvador, Charles Hine, Montserrat Aguer, William Jeffett, David A. Brennan, Elliott H. King, and High Museum of Art. Salvador Dalí: The Late Work. Atlanta [GA.]: High Museum of Art, 2010.

Bennett, Leonie. Salvador Dali. Chicago, Ill: Heinemann Library, 2005.