The Hallucinogenic Toreador

The Hallucinogenic Toreador is an oil painting done by Salvador Dali in-between 1968-70. It seems to be an attempt to help show his viewers the way he sees things. It is hard to discern whether or not the work is a tragic, or celebratory painting. The painting is a very ambitious, and a complex double image where the face of a bullfighter is implanted into Venus de Milo figurines. Dali put a lot of work into this painting as with a lot of his other works, but this one especially is very unique in part due the sheer amount of detail he managed to put into it. The subject matter is primarily composed of Greek elements, and Spanish elements, but let’s focus on the Greek aspect first. The most obvious Greek inspired element that the viewer sees is the Venus Del Mio figurines. The “Venus de Milo, ancient statue commonly thought to represent Aphrodite” (Britannica 1). There are some oddities that can be seen such as floating heads that appear to be from the figurines themselves. There seems to be five heads with a blue glow around the head, and share the face of the figure that has the most detail (the one on the far right). It makes sense that Dali would make the figurine that composes the bullfighters face be the most complex figurine, and have the most detailed face. There are also some Spanish elements that Dali put into this painting. A not so…

Narcissus but also to the narcissism of Dali himself, we can assume that the group of women are admirers of Narcissus/Dali, and that the man on the pedestal represents Narcissus/Dali, who, in true narcissistic style, has put himself up there. Equally curious, although more difficult to assign meaning to, is the similarity between the crack in the egg and the mark on the top of the figure’s head. Overall the painting seems to convey a sense of sadness, in part due to the inevitable destruction of…