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Lot Essay
Nicolas and Olivier Descharnes have confirmed the authenticity of this work.
The religious fervor that Dalí demonstrates in his major paintings of the late 1940s and early 1950s was reawakened in him by the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. The dawning of the nuclear age prompted in Dalí an appreciation of the innate immateriality of matter and an understanding of how, as Heraclitus had once explained, matter existed in a constant and mysterious state of flux and disintegration. This revelation affirmed what he subsequently declared to be "the spirituality of all matter," and led to his embracing of an innate mysticism at the heart of existence--a mysticism which in turn began to manifest itself in his paintings through predominantly Roman Catholic imagery.
Dalí felt that modern painting had been made obsolete through the invention of high-speed photography. In his view, if painting was to survive, younger artists must return to classic principles of technique, skill and craftsmanship in order to attain the perfection and uniform brilliance of the work of Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo, as in the present drawing depicting Michelangelo's The Last Judgment. "It would be a mistake... to regard Dalí's renewed interest in the Catholic faith as a reactionary move away from his earlier interest in modern art and modernity. The artist's embracement of spirituality, and his related efforts to reinvigorate modern painting through the utilization of the techniques and religious iconography of the art of the Italian Renaissance, were inextricably linked with his understanding of recent scientific discoveries, most notably atomic energy and particle physics" (D. Ades and M.R. Taylor, Dalí, New York, 2004, p. 346).
The religious fervor that Dalí demonstrates in his major paintings of the late 1940s and early 1950s was reawakened in him by the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. The dawning of the nuclear age prompted in Dalí an appreciation of the innate immateriality of matter and an understanding of how, as Heraclitus had once explained, matter existed in a constant and mysterious state of flux and disintegration. This revelation affirmed what he subsequently declared to be "the spirituality of all matter," and led to his embracing of an innate mysticism at the heart of existence--a mysticism which in turn began to manifest itself in his paintings through predominantly Roman Catholic imagery.
Dalí felt that modern painting had been made obsolete through the invention of high-speed photography. In his view, if painting was to survive, younger artists must return to classic principles of technique, skill and craftsmanship in order to attain the perfection and uniform brilliance of the work of Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo, as in the present drawing depicting Michelangelo's The Last Judgment. "It would be a mistake... to regard Dalí's renewed interest in the Catholic faith as a reactionary move away from his earlier interest in modern art and modernity. The artist's embracement of spirituality, and his related efforts to reinvigorate modern painting through the utilization of the techniques and religious iconography of the art of the Italian Renaissance, were inextricably linked with his understanding of recent scientific discoveries, most notably atomic energy and particle physics" (D. Ades and M.R. Taylor, Dalí, New York, 2004, p. 346).