The Analysis of Salvador Dali’s Galatea of the Spheres (1952)

Salvador Dali belongs to surrealism masters, whose works are considered to have been influenced by Renaissance art. When looking at any of Dali’s paintings, it would be not hard to notice that the artist was extremely talented and imaginative man. His works have always drawn considerable interest. One of such works is Galatea of the Spheres, which will be analyzed below.

Galatea of the Spheres is one of the most prominent Dali’s paintings. When looking at it, one can see a woman’s face – actually, Dali depicted the muse of his life – his wife Gala. Dali chose an interesting way to depict the face – through numerous differently shaped spheres. The aim why Dali chose such manner of depicting his wife’s face is to show the unity of atomic theory (spheres as atomic particles) and principles of Renaissance art. It came to me as a surprise that Dali was actually really interested in the principles of nuclear physics. From the time of the first atomic explosion in 1945, the atomic bomb became for Dali as a mystery and food for thought.

When closely looking at the portrait, I can observe that Dali showed preference in using pale colors. Besides, the circular shapes – spheres – hide features of a person’s face inside of them. Personally, I like this choice of colors and texture as a whole – it has its certain strength and character. It is evident that the object positioning is shifted to the center. Gala’s face is a sign of discontinuity despite its fragmented setting.

All in all, like any other of Dali’s paintings, Galatea of the Spheres distinctly fits into the surrealism style due to its peculiar representation of a woman’s face. The portrait of Gala, Dali’s wife, resembles that of Madonna. Still, the artist inspired by science (especially the nuclear physics), spiritualizes and raises Galatea above the tangible world.