Vision of Hell Salvador Dali free essay sample

Salvador Dali: Vision of Hell Surrealism was the 20th century phase in art and literature of expressing subconscious in images without order or coherence, as in a dream. Surrealist art went beyond writing or painting objects as they looked at reality. Their art showed objects in distorted forms, colors, and movements, like in a dream. Dali’s surrealistic art was based on the belief that there were treasures hidden in the human mind. The word fantasy cannot accurately describe surrealism. Rather, surrealism is better described as a grander reality. In this grander reality, the conflicts faced in life could find resolution. Salvador Dali believed that the truth, by its own nature, was hidden. Due to this, much of his work was based on this belief. Salvador Dali defined surrealism in the way he lived his life, and in the art he created. â€Å"The Vision of Hell† (1962) is a highly sophisticated painting that juxtaposes Salvador Dali’s earlier style, Surrealism, with a more classical style of religious mysticism which he developed later in life. We will write a custom essay sample on Vision of Hell Salvador Dali or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â€Å"The piece of art Vision of Hell is unusual because it disappeared for almost 40 years, suddenly reappearing in the fall of 1997 80 years after Marys alleged appearance in Fatima. Various stories arose to explain its disappearance, including that the painting languished in a convent under a nuns bed. The most likely story is that the painting, which was last seen in 1962 in a travel agency that arranged bus tours to the Fatima shrine, was rescued by a member of the Blue Army who placed it in storage at the organizations headquarters in New Jersey. † Critics believe that Dali’s greatest works were those done during his Surrealistic period. Greatly influenced by Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, he tried to enter the subconscious world while he was painting, in order to fathom subconscious imagery. To this end, he tried various methods. For example, he attempted to simulate insanity while painting and he tried setting up his canvas at the base of his bed to paint before sleeping and upon rising. During this period of his life certain images repeated themselves in his art: eyes, noses, bones, crutches, clouds, mountains, blood, soft bodies and/or objects. In â€Å"Vision of Hell†, all of these symbols are found. Called cliches by some, here they seem to be much more than a trite convention. They are an expression of Dali himself. Too, Dali uses the techniques of double images, hidden appearances, and counter appearances. It is important to note that although in the early 1960’s Dali’s art was pejoratively classified as â€Å"academic†, â€Å"religious†, and â€Å"mystic†. Despite the fact that often excluded from the company of Surrealists, Dali deliberately chose the lapse into his previous surrealist style to accomplish the portrayal of hell (the left side of the painting), while his newer style of â€Å"Religious Mysticism† is used on the right side of the painting in the portrayal of Our Lady of Fatima. The central image in the painting is that of eight carving forks, that, in the form of a circle are piercing a body that, typical of Dali’s earlier period, is soft. The parts most visible in this human form are the left chest, the left arm, and the head. â€Å"Vision of Hell† is Dali’s vision portrayal of death. Whenever an artist seriously approaches the subject of death, expect profundity. When this part of the painting is placed side by side with Dali’s famous birth painting, the comparison is startling. Both bodies are curved in a type of fetal position; there are large drops of blood; the arm, the navel and the breast are the central focus of attention. Dali as well as other surrealist painters was greatly influenced by the Dutch painter, Hieronymous Bosh. The burning buildings shown in the top left of Dali’s painting closely resemble Bosch’s burning building in hell, and interestingly, Dali also picks up from Bosch’s inferno the image of the tattered flag, as well as a rectangular structure from which emanate four rays of light. In his earlier, much more famous works, Dali frequently employed crutches in his paintings. He, himself, says he finds the crutch to be â€Å"the significance of life and death†¦ a support for inadequacy. The orange/red spirit, shown escaping from the pierced body in â€Å"Vision of Hell†, has two crutches, one under or on each breast. They seem claw like. Clutching. Salvador Dali often hides images and faces within his paintings, and many of his works are self-portraits. There are three places in this painting where it seems Dali is porting himself. First, in the polymorphic body and second in a whimsical face that appears in a puff of smoke in the lower left center part of the painting. However, there is another face, hidden face, composed of an eye and a nose, which dominates the painting. The dominant face in â€Å"Vision of Hell† can be found by focusing on the black drops that appear in the middle left side of the painting. These black drops, if seen as tears falling from a closed eye, anchor the position to see a bushy black eyebrow above the crying eye, the inside edge of which is being pierced by two carving forks. If one perceives the eye, then the large white nose, which too is being pierced by carving forks, appears. The hidden face is composed of an eye crying black tears, a bushy eyebrow and a large nose, all of which closely resemble Dali’s own features. This dominant and tormented face, floating in the air, recalls the lines which Dali used to inspire the painting: â€Å"plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form †¦. Rose into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves † (St. Lucia’s Description of hell). Dali chose to sign his name prominently in the middle if the painting. Could it be that â€Å"Vision of Hell† is not only a portrayal of the vision of hell seen by the three Sheppard children but, also a portrayal of Dali himself, tormented and crying? Is a serious portrayal of death, such as this, a minor work?