Salvador Dalí | Madonna | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Madonna

Salvador Dalí
(Spanish, Figueres 1904–1989 Figueres )

Date: 1958

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 88 7/8 x 75 1/4 in. (225.7 x 191.1 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Gift of Drue Heinz, in memory of Henry J. Heinz II, 1987

Accession Number: 1987.465

Not on view

Description Object Information Related Objects Online Resources Video Audio

Dalí's penchant for optical illusion and veiled iconography are evident in this painting. As seen from a distance, a rendition of Raphael's Sistine Madonna (after 1513; Gemäldegalerie Dresden) is situated within a gargantuan ear-a reference to the Passion of Christ. From close range, it is an abstract work composed of countless particle-like gray and pink dots, reflecting the artist's interest in nuclear physics.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Signed and dated (center left): Dali 1958
Exhibition History

Tokyo. Prince Hotel Gallery. "Salvador Dali Exhibition—Japan, 1964," September 8–October 18, 1964, no. 58 (lent by Mr.and Mrs. Henry J. Heinz, U.S.A.).

Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya. "Salvador Dali Exhibition—Japan, 1964," October 23–30, 1964, no. 58.

Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Salvador Dali Exhibition—Japan, 1964," November 3–29, 1964, no. 58.

Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden Baden. "Dalí: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Objekte, Schmuck," January 29–April 18, 1971, no. 71.

Tokyo. Isetan Museum of Art. "Retrospective Salvador Dalí," February 28–April 6, 1982, no. 21.

Daimaru Museum, Osaka. "Retrospective Salvador Dalí," April 22–May 29, 1982, no. 21.

Kitakyushu Municipal Museum. "Retrospective Salvador Dalí," May 8–June 6, 1982, no. 21.

Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum. "Retrospective Salvador Dalí," June 11–July 11, 1982, no. 21.

Mexico City. Museo Rufino Tamayo. "Dos Obras Maestras de Salvador Dali," March 12–April 20, 1986, unnum. brochure.

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. "Salvador Dalí, 1904–1989," May 13–July 23, 1989.

Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Dalí," February 16–May 15, 2005.

St. Petersburg, Fla. Salvador Dalí Museum. "Pollock to Pop: America's Brush with Dali," December 9, 2005–April 23, 2006, unnumbered cat. (p. 52).

Madrid. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. "Los Cinéticos," March 27–August 20, 2007.

Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Salvador Dali: The Late Work," August 7, 2010–January 2, 2011.
References

Michael Taylor, ed. The Dalí Renaissance: New Perspectives on His Life and Art after 1940. An International Symposium. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2008, pp. 15–21, 27, 34 n. 51, pp. 83, 89 n. 59, pp. 140–41, fig. 2.