Marina Nebro July 21, 2014
Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
Salvador Dali’s painting, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944), is a model example of twentieth century surrealist artwork. The emerging symbolic and cerebral genre of art follows the irrational movement of Romanticism, and takes its sublime and absurd nature further through the influence of Freud and his studies on dreams and the subconscious. In this particular masterpiece, painted while the artist was residing in America, Dali incorporates realism, compositional genius, symbolism, and art historical allusion, ultimately culminating in a well rounded and model piece of Surrealist artwork.
Dali’s main technical intention for Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee was to paint it in a realistic style. He often referred to this work, and other pieces like it, as a “hand-painted dream photograph,” thereby acknowledging the realism of his painting. Using compact brush strokes, Dali accurately portrays the mountainous yet sparse landscape, as well as the detail on the tigers, fish, pomegranate, and other characters within the piece. Perhaps this careful brushwork can best be seen in the crafting of the ultra-realistic water droplets by the woman’s thigh.
Though depicting a dream-realm filled with unrealistic and irrational settings and events, Dali grounds the work in a strong compositional framework. Two geometrical forms dominate the picture plane. Beginning with the large pomegranate (center-left), the fish, tigers, bayonet, breast, bee, and smaller pomegranate create a large circular form. The long legs of Dali’s elephant, depicted in the background of the image, create a triangular pyramid, mirrored by the obelisk carried on the large animal’s back. There is also a visual connection between the yellow and black stripes on the tigers and the classic colors of the bee.
The most surrealist aspect of this painting is its symbolism and its acknowledgment of Freud’s work on dreams and the subconscious. Looking at the main subject of the piece, a woman is laying down, partially floating above the rock below her, about to be impaled by the bayonet above her. The idea that noises in the real world affect the events within a dream is absolutely apparent within Dali’s piece, as the buzzing bee contemplating its landing on a sweet pomegranate in the real world (also depicted within the painting in the foreground) is then exaggeratedly represented in the dream realm, the bayonet representing the bee’s sting. Though the presence of the pomegranate is important to show the connection between the real world and the dream world, it also serves another symbolic purpose. The fruit is filled with symbolism from various cultures ranging from Judeo-Christian to Chinese. In the Christian tradition, the pomegranate is seen as a symbol of fertility and rebirth. One interpretation of the pomegranate in the foreground is that it represents Venus – the water droplets alluding to the symbol of pearls (often times accompanying a Venus in classical art), and the shadow taking the shape of a heart (Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy). The symbolism of rebirth and renewal is only emphasized by the circular composition of the figures, mentioned above.
Marking a talented painter is his or her acknowledgement of the past, and of his or her ancestors in the art world. Salvador Dali does just this, as he references artists of the Renaissance and Baroque ages. The first, and more apparent, allusion to historical art is his elephant. This symbol crops up a lot in Dali’s work, though Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee features his first anatomically peculiar beast. Modeled after Bernini’s Elephant and Obelisk (1667), Dali is clearly recognizing and paying homage to his past as an artist. More so than any of the other figures in the piece, the elephants are extremely distorted, emphasizing the dream-like and surrealist quality of the painting. Less apparent, and perhaps simply continuing the tradition of reclining nudes, Dali uses his wife as a model, posing her in a similar way to the woman in Titian’s The Bacchanal of the Andrians (on display at the Prado). Coupling this pose with the symbols of the pomegranate and water droplets (mentioned above), Dali’s reclining nude can be interpreted as Venus.
With its dream-like qualities, realism, and heavy symbolism, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening is a prime example of Dali’s Surrealist repertoire. Its strong composition and historical allusion only add to its already magnificent status.
Bibliography
Alarcó, Paloma. "Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza - Inicio." Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking up. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 July 2014. <http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_obra/352>.
Leroy, Cathrin, and Uta Grosenick. Surrealism. Köln: Taschen, 2004. Print.