Dali's "Toreador"

It took me a long time to figure out which artist and art work I wanted

to

choose for this paper. A lot of paintings and sculptures caught my eye,

but

one painting really stood out among them all. The painting that I chose

was

Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali. Dali started

this

very large *157.5 by 118 in) vertical surrealist painting in Port

Lligat in

1968 and finished it in 1970. It was purchased by Mr. And Mrs. Reynolds

for

the Salvador Dali Museum in Cleveland, to accompany many of his other

works

which had already been there. (weyers)

In this painting Dali repeated the image of the Venus De Milo many

times.

The largest two of the images make up a mans figure which looks like a

Toreador or bull fighter. (Mondadori) It also looks like the toreador's

coat

wrapping around much of the painting is partially made up of a very

abstract

picture of a dying bull, along with flies, shadows, and light. I found

that

this is not the first time that Dali has used the Venus De Milo in his

art

work. He also used it in a sculpture he made in 1936 where he used a

plaster

replica of the figure, and inserted drawers into her body and forehead.

It

was said that Deli first got the idea of painting a Toreador in the

Venus's

body when he envisioned the Toreador in the Venus's body in a picture

of the

venus on a box of pencils. (Art 20) the face and lips are on an angle

and

the right breast of the Venus makes up the Toreador's nose. The Venus's

gown

makes up the shirt and tie of the Toreador. Her stomach makes up his

chin,

and the right side of her face makes up his eye which seems to be

crying a

tear. It is thought that this tear is being shed for the dying bull,

and

also that the picture of Gala in the top left corner of the painting is

frowning because she disliked bullfights because of their cruelty to

animal.

(Art 20) The arena in the background looks like it might be part of his

hat,

and the shadows and light in the arena help give it it's shape. This

image

of the Venus and the Toreador is copied over and over in the painting,

and

really sends your eye flying throughout the painting. Starting first at

the

larger figure at the right side of the painting, then moving on a

downward

sloping diagonal to the left side of the painting, and then back t the

right

side of the painting again, following the smaller set of Venus's toward

the

bottom part of the painting. The dying bull in the painting is shown

with

blasts of color, and at first didn't even look like a bull to me, but

instead just sporadically placed colors and light. The bull is very

abstract

and his eye is made up of a fly and it's face seems very lonely and

sad.

Underneath the bull it looks like there might be a pool of blood, but

at the

same time it also looks like a pong or lake. At the bottom of the

"pond" it

looks like a dog is drinking out of it. This reminds me of a Picasso

painting where the dog is hiding under the table. I find it absolutely

amazing that Dalo made a group of black dots and splotches look so much

like

a dog. This is one thing that I think Dali does very well in a large

number

of his paintings. An example of this is shown in Deli's painting,

"Portrait

of My Dead brother". In this painting there is a bunch of black dots

and

splotches, and from a couple feet away it looks just like a man's face.

I

think one way he makes this idea work is using the light source in his

favor.

In the Hallucinogenic Toreador Dali uses the light source very well.

Even

though the painting consists of a mixture of realism and