Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMÈNECH (Figueras, Girona, 1904 - 1989).
"Sant Jordi".
Patinated bronze on veined black marble base, copy 604/650.
Signed and justified by hand.
Diejasa certificate attached.
Measurements: 30 x 27 x 17 cm.

For more than thirty years, especially between 1947 and 1985, the theme of Saint George and the dragon was a constant in Dalí's artistic production. A great admirer of the work of Raphael Sanzio during his stays in Paris and Florence, Dalí studied and memorized the Saint George in the Louvre and the magnificent preparatory drawings kept in the Uffizi Gallery in the Tuscan capital. This influence of the Italian genius can be clearly seen in his first "St. George with the Dragon", an engraving made in 1947 at the request of the Princt Club of Cleveland. For the execution of this one, Dalí counted on the participation of his friend Stanley William Hayter, one of the best engravers of the last century. Regarding this theme, the master from Figueras chose the first part of the fight for this engraving, when St. George wounded the dragon with a blow of a spear that breaks. The sculpture that we present here continues the bases established by that first engraving, turning it to bronze in a composition that reflects the brave and daring character of the Saint. Dalí represented a tremendously energetic and dynamic sculpture. As indicated in Diejasa's book "Sculptures", "the Saint is fighting with the terrible dragon, whom he must slay in order to free Cleodolinda, a beautiful princess with whom, like other knights-errant of the time, he was hopelessly in love. The battle is fierce, but St. George, with the help of an angel and his white horse, will soon defeat the horrible enemy. In order to give more dramatic tension to his sculpture, Dalí wanted to show him at a moment of the fight when he is about to be swallowed by the evil dragon. But his spear is already stuck in the monster's mouth, which will end up defeated under the legs of the spirited steed.

During his early years, Dalí discovered contemporary painting during a family visit to Cadaqués, where he met the family of Ramon Pichot, an artist who regularly traveled to Paris. Following Pichot's advice, Dalí began to study painting with Juan Núñez. In 1922, Dalí stayed at the famous Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid to begin studying Fine Arts at the San Fernando Academy. However, before his final exams in 1926, he was expelled for claiming that there was no one there fit to examine him. That same year Dalí traveled to Paris for the first time. There he met Picasso, and established some formal characteristics that would become distinctive of all his work from then on. During this period, Dalí held regular exhibitions in both Barcelona and Paris, and joined the surrealist group based in the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse. The painter landed in America in 1934, thanks to art dealer Julian Levy. As a result of his first individual exhibition in New York, his international projection was definitively consolidated, and since then he has been showing his work and giving lectures all over the world. Most of his production is gathered in the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueras, followed by the collection of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (Florida), the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades (California), the Espace Dalí in Montmartre (Paris) or the Dalí Universe in London.