Title: The Sacred Heart of Jesus Artist: Salvador Dali Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 86.5 x 61 cm Date: 1962 Location: Private Collection.
Dali's Sacred Heart portrays so clearly and frankly the beauty, strength, intensity and raw humanity of Christ's divine heart. This is not the passive Christ of so much religious art but rather the strong Christ of self-emptying love whose heart was crucified for us. Here is a Christ strong enough to carry any burdens we might lay at his feet; a heart tender enough to welcome any who seek refuge within it; a heart unafraid to expose itself that all might know its love and mercy.
Salvador Dali (May 1904 – January 1989) was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer. Although he is best known for his Surrealist works, Salvador Dali incorporated countless styles and themes into his work throughout his long and illustrious career. In 1940, as World War II started in Europe, Dali moved to the United States and eventually returned to the practice of Catholicism, and many of the images he utilized in his mid and late career were religious in nature.
Title: They Will All Come From Saba Artist: Salvador Dali Medium: Watercolor on paper Size: tbd Date: 1963-64 Location: Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg
Matthew 2:9-10 After the Wise Men had listened to the king, they went on their way. The star they had seen when they were in the east went ahead of them. It finally stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy.
After the Magi have left Jerusalem, they would likely have followed a road that led south to Bethlehem, which was about six miles from Jerusalem, so the rest of the Magi's journey probably did not take very long. As such, it would have been difficult to determine the exact position of the star in relation to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, unless the object were only a mile high. However, the Magi being led by a supernatural sign does recall how God was able to lead his own people by fire and cloud in the wilderness as recorded in Exodus.
Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer. Although he is best known for his Surrealist works, Salvador Dalí incorporated countless styles and themes into his work throughout his long and illustrious career. Many of the images he utilized in his mid and late career were religious in nature. Commissioned by Dr. Giuseppe Albaretto, a friend of Salvador Dalí and collector of his work, as a way to encourage Dalí to re-examine his spirituality and draw him back into the Catholic Church, Dalí’s Biblia Sacra encompasses 105 paintings based on passages from the Latin Vulgate Bible.
Dante Alighieri (c.1265, Florence – September 14, 1321, Ravenna), commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. In Italy he is known as il Sommo Poeta (the Supreme Poet) or just il Poeta. His Divine Comedy, originally called Commedia by the author and later nicknamed Divina by Boccaccio, is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. Written between 1308 and Dante’s death in 1321, the poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the WesternChurch. Further, it helped establish the Tuscan dialect as the Italian standard.
The encounter with Mohammed takes place in the eight circle of Hell, the circle of fraud. Mohammed is punished in the ninth ditch of this circle, among the sowers of religious, political and familial discord who are 'split', or mutilated, by a devil's sword. As Mohammed explains to Dante, the devil is standing somewhere in the background at a fixed point of the circular ditch, thrusting with his sword at the damned who have to pass in front of him. The wounds which they receive heal while the damned proceed on their way, only to be stricken again when the damned have to face the devil again. Mohammed explains the general arrangement of the punishment of the place, and suggests also a specific sense of this punishment, by associating a bodily 'splitting' with the 'splitting' of community. Unlike other sinners in this canto, Mohammed does not make any remarks about his earlier life and does not relate any specific deed for which he is punished. It has caused some consternation that Dante places Mohammed at this specific place in Hell, and not in the sixth circle with the heretics and heresiarchs in their red-hot glowing tombs. But some commentators have pointed out that this punishment in a place deeper in hell implies a more severe condemnation. And this more severe condemnation does not imply an exculpation from the less grave sin of heresy, because according to the general rule each soul is punished at the place of his (or her) gravest sin.
To celebrate Dante’s 700th birthday, Salvador Dali was commissioned by the Italian government in 1951 to create a set of illustrations for the Divine Comedy. However, the reception of Dali's project in Italy was extremely negative, since it did not seem appropriate for a Spanish (rather than Italian) painter, much less an irreverent Surrealist and sometime fascist sympathizer, to illustrate a commemorative edition of the greatest Italian poet's masterpiece to be published by the State Press. Regardless, Dali produced a masterpiece of his own, and the set of watercolors with their range of artistic styles demonstrates that Dali was one of the greatest artists of the century. The series consists of 100 illustrations - one print for each canto plus one cover image, and were produced as engravings in the years 1959 to 1963 in Paris, commissioned by Joseph Foret. Woodcut experts Raymond Jacquet and Jean Taricco worked for many years under Dali’s guidance to transfer his visions to the medium. Several blocks (frequently referred to as “wood” blocks, although they were actually a resin-based matrix) - one for each color – had to be made for each image, and more than 3,000 blocks were necessary to complete the whole engraving process.
Mark 16:19-20 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Both Jewish and gentile readers could relate to the idea of an ascension of a great hero, but for Jesus to sit at God’s right hand goes beyond this idea – it means that Jesus reigns as God’s agent. Reference to this singular honor is found in Psalms 110:1, and its significance attested to again in the Letter to the Hebrews 1:13, when its author writes “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’?”
Dali said that his inspiration for the theatrical ‘Ascension’ came from a "cosmic dream" that he had in 1950, some eight years before the painting was completed. In the dream, which was in vivid color, he saw the nucleus of an atom, which we see in the background of the painting. In this painting the focus is on the bottoms of the supine figure's feet, an homage to Mantegna's landmark ‘Dead Christ’,' an early and daring example of perspective. Vanishing-point perspective was the forerunner of Dali's own optical illusions.
Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989) was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and designer. He was born in the small town of Figueres, Spain. Dali was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. Dali's name is synonymous with the Surrealist art movement. A prolific artist, Dali created more than 1500 paintings during his life time, as well many works in other media including prints, drawings, sculpture, book illustration, and theater set designs.
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“The grace of God be with you all! Amen.” Heb 13:25
Title: The Sacrament of the Last Supper Artist: Salvador Dali Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 267 cm × 166.7 cm Date: 1955 Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Depicted is a representation one of the most significant events in Christian theology. As described in all four Gospels, at the Passover meal with his twelve disciples Jesus presented bread and wine, offered as his body and blood, as the basis for a new covenant between God and his people.
This painting, however, rather than being a historical depiction like Da Vinci’s masterpiece, seems to represent the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Christ himself is translucent and casts no shadow, and the gathered disciples seem to be focused not on the figure, but on the bread and wine displayed on the table.Christ is present, yet not visible to the eye.
Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) was a Spanish painter born in Figueres, and considered a master of the 20th Century surrealist movement. In 1940, as World War II started in Europe, Dali moved to the United States and eventually returned to the practice of Catholicism. There he announced 'My painting in future will be an amalgam of my Surrealist experience and the classicism of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Renaissance.'
Title: The Sacred Heart of Jesus
