Relief (bas-relief), silver plated on brass; the relief 'Moses and Monotheism' was the artistic completion of an exclusive edition to texts by Sigmund Freud
Signed in black ink by Sakvador Dali in lower right corner; edition of 300 copies.
Publisher: Ariane Lancell, Art et Valeur editions, 1974
Certificate of authenticity included.
Salvador Dalíwas directly inspired by Michelangelo's marble Moses, created for the second mausoleum of Julius II, located in Rome in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli. This plaque depicts three things very important to Dalí: Freud, Moses and Michelangelo.
Literature:
-Catalog raisonné of sculptures "Le major et le mou" (ed. Eccart, R. Descharnes, 2004, p. 219, no. 562) and
-Field catalog raisonné Field: 75-2. Dimensions: 69.5 x 54.5 cm framed in a 96 x 69 cm frame.
Salvador Dalí, known for his surrealist works full of symbolism and ambiguity, created a painting titled "Moses and Monotheism," also known as "Moses-A Ray of Energy," between 1968 and 1970. This painting is a tribute to one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, Michelangelo, of whom Dali was a great admirer.
Moses has horns on his head, the result of a mistranslation of the Hebrew Bible into Latin. In Hebrew, the word "karan" means both "horn" and "radius." Jerome, translating the Bible into Latin, used the word "cornuta," which means "horned."
For Dali, monotheism was one of the most important achievements in human history. He believed that monotheism was the foundation of Western civilization. Monotheism combines three figures important to Salvador Dali: Moses and Michelangelo and Freud.
For Dali, Sigmund Freud was not simply a doctor or scientist - he was a prophet who provided him with the "keys to the kingdom" of his own fears, dreams and desires. This is one of the most obsessive and fascinating accounts in the history of modern art.
Dali began reading Freud as a 20-year-old in Madrid. Explaining Dreams became the most important book of his life. He later confessed that reading Freud was like discovering a new map of the world - this time a map of the inside of the human head.
For years Dali tried to meet his idol. He traveled to Vienna three times, but Freud dismissed him. Only in 1938 in London, thanks to the mediation of Stefan Zweig, the legendary meeting took place. Dali was 34 at the time, Freud was 82 and terminally ill.
Dali's fascination with Freud led him to formulate his own creative method. Dali didn't want to simply paint dreams (like other Surrealists). He wanted to actively induce a state of paranoia and then "critically" analyze and recreate it.
If Freud was for Dali a "spiritual father" in the realm of intellect, Michelangelo was for him God in the realm of form. Dali considered himself the direct heir of the Renaissance masters, and placed Michelangelo at the absolute top of the artistic hierarchy. In the 1950s and 1960s, Dali became almost mystically obsessed with his sculptures. He repeatedly reinterpreted his most famous works. Moses was one of his favorite sculptures. Dali saw in it power and anger, which he equated with creative power.
