Verified Document

Paintings Both Salvador Dali And Raphael Incorporated Essay

Paintings Both Salvador Dali and Raphael incorporated Christian imagery into their paintings. Raphael renders a scene from the life of Christ in "Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints." The painting is rendered on wood, with oil and gold leaf. It was designed to be a panel installed in a church: meaning that the painting had a cultural, religious, and ritualistic context as opposed to being art for art's sake. In Dali's "Crucifixion," the artist works firmly within his genre as a surrealist, and reinvents Christ on the canvas. Dali paints art for art's sake; this unconventional rendition of Christ would not have been commissioned by clergy as Raphael's was. However, Dali was heavily influenced by Catholicism. The artist is not being sacrilegious or even irreverent here; but Dali is reinventing Christ's image and that of the crucifixion. Painted in oil on canvas, "The Crucifixion" bears remarkable similarities to Raphael's religious painting. For one, the color palettes are similar because of the reliance of gold. However, the two paintings differ in most other regards, including composition.

Both Raphael and Dali place Christ in a central role, but do so using different compositional techniques. For Raphael, the painting of the Madonna and Child meant rendering Christ as a baby. His diminutive size cannot detract from his spiritual importance, though, which is why he and the Virgin Mary are seated on a throne and are attended by others. A child in a red outfit has connected with the baby...

There is a gold halo surrounding Mary as well as the saints. Christ does not need one, perhaps because of his innocence at this stage. Dali depicts Christ at the end of his life, rather than the beginning.
The two artists therefore choose different periods in Christ's life, and render those two events differently. Whereas Raphael renders the infancy of baby Jesus, Dali renders the death of Christ on the cross. In both paintings, a woman features prominently. The woman in Raphael's painting is the Virgin Mary. In Dali's, it is the artist's wife Gala. Gala stands reverentially before Christ. She is draped in heavy robes not dissimilar to the ones worn by the saints in Raphael's painting. Raphael chooses to depict several other people besides Mary and Jesus; whereas Dali's painting is more minimalist. No other figures besides Gala and Christ are in the painting. Similarly, Dali's palette is simpler than Raphael's. Raphael uses jewel tones in many hues including red, green, blue, and orange. Dali sticks to shades of gold, black and white.

Dali's imagery of the crucifixion is unique in that there is no blood. Christ floats in front of the three-dimensional cross; he is not nailed to that cross. Instead, four floating cubes seem to present a sort of force field that holds Christ to the form of the cross. The effect is almost one that changes the symbol of Christ's martyrdom from something…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Dali, Salvador. "The Crucifixion." Painting. 1954

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio). "Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints." Painting, ca. 1504.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Painting Read Monet's the Stroll Monet Monet's
Words: 967 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Painting Read Monet's the Stroll Monet Monet's the Stroll, Camille Monet Her Son Jean (Woman With a Parasol) This painting epitomizes the impressionistic style and artistic philosophy in a number of different ways. If one looks closely at the painting by Monet one can see that the foreground, the sky as well as the dress and parasol are created by many short strokes of opaque paint. This gives the impression of a moment captured

Painting Analysis of Jean Helion's 1948 Painting
Words: 1067 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Painting analysis of Jean Helion's 1948 painting "Grande Citrouillerie" (Big Pumpkin Event) Rather than a traditional harvest painting, as its title might suggest, "Grande Citrouillerie," or, in English translation the "Big Pumpkin Event," has the appearance of a poster or advertisement painted in an art deco fashion typical of the 19th century. The painting shows the form of a twisted, half cut open pumpkin with its inner seeds and hanging pulp

Paintings Monet's 1868 "The River"
Words: 320 Length: 1 Document Type: Term Paper

The black in the male cafe patrons' suits, renders an aura of sophistication. The combination of white and black grabs the eye and creates a sense of movement that corresponds with the lively dancing. Painted only 12 years later, Van Gogh's "Night Cafe" conveys a completely different cafe ambiance. Whereas Renoir's cafe is full of life and light, Van Gogh's is strikingly lonely, occupied by a few sullen drunks with

Painting Analysis Jean-Francois Millet: 'Priory
Words: 1931 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

His work can be seen as fitting into a wider context of artists working to represent the France their generally well-off and comfortably middle-class and upper-class purchasers wanted to see and to believe in. The purchasers of Millet's works may never have visited the Normandy countryside for themselves, but they could share in its beauty and its spiritual and moral values through Millet's art and the art of other

Painting in Question Here Has
Words: 828 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Is this a simple soldier pulling away the cadavers of his companions or death itself taking away dear individuals into the unknown? Who is connecting the physical bodies with the symbolic meaning of the stripes painted with their blood? The characters in the background also play an important role in the creation of the painting. With their presence, they create an antithesis to the characters in the foreground. They are

Painting As an Leisure Activity
Words: 1763 Length: 5 Document Type: Term Paper

Painting as a Leisure Activity History of Painting Humans have been painting pictures since roughly 15,000 to 17,000 years ago. How do we know? The oldest known paintings were found on the walls of a cave near Lascaux, France, by in 1940 (by a dog named "robot" who led four boys into the cave). These extraordinary cave paintings (of very large animals: horses, bulls and stags), were tested through carbon dating and

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now