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Viewing report
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Dali’s ‘Le Christ’. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Dec 2008, Pages: 76
Salvador Dalí’s much loved painting Le Christ (1951)
seems to portray the crucified Christ looking down
protectively on the Sea of Galilee, where there are
an ancient nobleman, a fisherman and his boat, and a
modern-suited man. Yet Le Christ has attracted
academic suspicion of its intentions, as also
physical assaults from members of the public. Dalí’s
conversion to Catholicism in 1941 it fitted with his
breaking with conventional Surrealism and his siding
with Franco in Spain’s civil war. Yet Le Christ
gives rise to doubts as to its straightforward
religiosity. Dalí’s Christ is not conspicuously
suffering: there are no nails, no blood, no sweat
and no crown of thorns, but many reminders of Dalí’s
beloved home of Port Lligat and of his sex-mad wife,
Gala, who had escaped from Russian Communism.
Christ’s face is obscured and there is no title on
the Cross indicating who is being crucified –
instead just a piece of paper lifted from a painting
by Dalí’s hero, Velazquez. So Dali probably saw and
painted himself as the Christ-like figure on his
Cross. Dalí believed he was born to save the world
from modern non-realist art -- though not by the
route of martyrdom.
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