“Elephants” is a painting by Salvador Dali, creating a minimalistic and almost monotonous surreal storyline. The absence of many elements and the blue sky makes it unlike the other canvases, however, the simplicity of the picture enhances the attention that the viewer pays to Bernini's elephants - a repeating element in Dali's work.
The man who conquered reality
Dali is one of those artists who rarely leave indifferent even among people alien to art. No wonder he is the most popular artist of the new era. The pictures of the surrealist are written as if reality, such as the world around it sees it, did not exist for Dali.
Many experts tend to think that the artist’s imagination, pouring onto the canvas in the form of unrealistic plots, is the fruit of a painful mind eaten up by psychosis, paranoia and megalomania (an opinion that the masses often agree with, trying to explain what is impossible to understand) . Salvador Dali lived as he wrote, thought as he wrote, therefore his paintings, like the canvases of other artists, are a reflection of the reality that the surrealist saw around him.
In his autobiographies and letters, through a dense veil of arrogance and self-love, a rational attitude to life and his actions, regret and recognition of his own weak character, which draws strength from an unshakable confidence in his own genius, is seen. Having broken ties with the art community of his native Spain, Dali stated that he was the surrealist, and he was not mistaken. Today, the first thing that comes to mind when meeting the word "surrealism" is the name of the artist.
Duplicate characters
Dali often used repeating symbols in his paintings, such as a clock, eggs or slingshots. Critics and art historians are unable to explain the significance of all these elements and their purpose in the paintings. It is possible that objects and objects that appear again and again connect paintings among themselves, but there is a theory that Dali used them for commercial purposes in order to increase attention and interest in his paintings.
Whatever the motives for using the same symbols in different paintings, the artist somehow chose them, which means they had a secret meaning, if not purpose. One of these elements, passing from canvas to canvas, are “long-legged” elephants with an obelisk on their backs.
For the first time such an elephant appeared in the film "A Dream Caused by a Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate, a Second Before Awakening." Subsequently, Salvador Dali's painting “Elephants” was painted on which he depicted two such animals. The artist himself called them “Bernini Elephants”, because the image was created under the influence of a dream in which Bernini sculpture walked in the funeral procession of the Pope.
Salvador Dali, “Elephants”: description of the painting
In the picture, two elephants with incredibly long and thin legs are walking along the desert plain towards each other against the background of a red-yellow sunset sky. At the top of the picture, stars are already shining in the sky, and the horizon is still lit by bright sunlight. Both elephants bear the attributes of the Pope and are covered with the same carpets to match the elephants themselves. One of the elephants lowered the trunk and head and heads from west to east, the other goes to meet him, raising the trunk.
The picture of Salvador Dali's “Elephants” makes everyone except the animals themselves drown and dissolve in the bright light of sunset. At the feet of elephants are depicted the outlines of human figures walking towards; their shadows are almost as grotesque as the legs of elephants. One of the figures resembles a silhouette of a man, the other - a woman or an angel. Between the figures of people, in the background, is a translucent house, lit by the rays of the setting sun.
Symbolism of Salvador Dali
The picture of Salvador Dali's “Elephants” seems simpler than many others, since it is not replete with many elements and is made in a narrow and rather dark color palette.
Symbols, in addition to the elephants themselves, are:
- bloody sunset;
- a translucent house, more like a monument;
- desert landscape;
- running figures;
- "Mood" of elephants.
In many cultures, elephants are symbols of strength and influence, perhaps this is what attracted the great egoist Dali. Some of Bernini’s elephants are associated with the symbol of religion, however, most likely, the special attraction of the sculpture for the surrealist Dali is that Bernini created it without ever seeing a real elephant. The long, thin legs of the elephants in the picture are contrasted with their mass and strength, creating a distorted, twofold symbol of strength and power, which rests on a shaky structure.
Salvador Dali was an artist with an inhuman flight of fantasy and a unique imagination. Not everyone understands his paintings, and very few can give them a concrete, confirmed by facts, explanation, but everyone agrees that each picture of the Spanish surrealist is in one way or another a reflection of the reality that the artist perceived.
Salvador Dali's “Elephants” is a great example of a surreal storyline. It creates a reality resembling an alien planet or a strange dream.