Salvador Dali Research Paper

When one hears the name ‘Salvador Dali’, one can’t help but think of the surrealist movement. The two have become so intertwined, it’s hard to discard the cemented association. After all, it was Dali who would bring attention and recognition to the movement. It’s important to note that the surrealist school is known for dismissing what was previously valued, like technique and grandiose, and taking on a new subject matter - all things taboo. Dali's major contribution to the Surrealist movement was the invention of the 'psycho technique', a method he called 'critical paranoia'. By implementing this method, he was able to fabricate delusions similar to those of paranoiacs with the intent of deriving hallucinatory images from his conscious. The …show more content…
He has long been praised for portraying poses that were more lenient towards naturalism. Naturalism in art refers to the representation of realistic entities, be it animate or otherwise, in settings that are not quite so. With that said, it’s unmistakable that there’s a strong contrast with the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism. There’s also an abundance of classicalism, esoteric to the Renaissance, in his works. What one needs to take into consideration is that prior to the Renaissance Period, the Catholic Church was the sole funder of art. This meant quite a bit of restraints for artists. Thus, medieval art was viewed as flat with unrealistic depictions of its subjects. But as the middle class got richer, the demand on art increased like never before. As a result, artists were allowed to flex their imaginative muscles and thus took their liberties accordingly discovering new techniques and themes. Another indication of Renaissance influence is the pyramid-like structure employed in the sculpture, formed by Mary's head, descending all the way down to the bottom of her robes. This was a rather striking work of art seeing as multi-figured sculptures were uncommon, at the time. These two figures are positioned in such a way so as to appear a unified entity which forms the shape of a pyramid, something that other Renaissance artists also