This oil on
wood painting that measures 51 x 40,5 centimetres was entitled “Dream Caused by
the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening” and it is
exhibited in the Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. Salvador Dali painted it
in the United States in 1944 and it is one of his most famous works. What we
can see is a laying naked woman which appears to be sleeping surrounded by a
strange scene. There is a big open pomegranate from which a fish emerges. The
centre of the scene is occupied by two impressive and fierce Bengal tigers,
which also emerge from the fish’s mouth. One of them seems to be wielding a
shotgun or a bayonet aiming at the woman and almost touching one of her arms.
In the
background there is an elephant, whose legs are extremely thin and long,
walking over the sea not too far away from a small island. Between its legs the
moon can be seen. The right and bottom part of the painting is composed of different
kinds of grey, brown and orange rocks. If one looks at the painting very
carefully it is also possible to see a tiny shape of a snail and the name of
Gala and Salvador Dalí engraved on the pediment stone.
The work is
entitled after the small bee flying around a pomegranate, which is believed to
be causing this exotic and strange dream.
Blue is
unarguably the main colour of this painting, because of the sea and the sky
although, strangely, the horizon is almost completely white. There is a
beautiful contrast between these warm and clear colours and the bright yellow
and orange that prevail in the animal and fruit figures. Once again, all of
them, and the landscape as well, are depicted in a highly realistic way, even
though every object seems to be floating and not making any kind of contact
with anything (not even the couple of water drops).
It is not
easy to tell where the light is coming from, but it is possible to appreciate a
dim shadow underneath the woman, which could suggest the idea of noon. However,
the most visible shadow is the one projected by both pomegranates, especially
the small one, that clearly show that the light is coming from the right part
of the painting.
The title
of the work gives us a clear hint in order to interpret it: the women is the
scene is dreaming this bizarre scene because of the sound of bee flying around
a pomegranate. And he is about to wake up, probably scared of the bayonet or even
because of the feeling of a shot or a cut.
Obviously,
the painting is inspired in the Freudian psychoanalytic movement, which
conceded great important to our dreams so as to know our own feeling, believes
and obscure desires. Throughout the Western cultural tradition, especially
since Ancient Greek culture, consciousness and rational thinking have been
believed to be the rulers of our behaviour. But from the 19th
Century on, the animal, instinctive and irrational parts of ourselves were
given more and more credit as the most important guidance of human conduct.
In a later
interview, Dalí suggested that, when we are sleeping, hearing a bee buzzing
could trigger a whole narrative story and provoke the feeling of a sting which
would awaken us. Bearing that in mind, he decided to depict this Gala’s
nightmare as an example of that deep part of our mind that is sub
consciousness. Dreams reveal fears and desires very often repressed by our
consciousness as a result of our moral values. The author himself used to
define his own work as “oneiric photography painted by hand”.
The
elephant carrying an obelisk is a distorted version of a very famous sculpture
by Italian artist Bernini, which is located in Rome. It became an iconic symbol
in Dalí’s art. Since Freudian psychology is the main inspiration the obelisk
can be seen as a phallic symbol, in the same way the pomegranate represents
female sexuality.
Of course,
art and painting are much more appropriate in order to represent this hidden
part of ourselves, since abstract concepts cannot express such a chaotic and
indescribable reality. Symbols, images and metaphors are the only tool we can
use so as to help those fear, obsessions and hidden feeling emerge from the
basement of our intricate minds.
This
specific masterpiece, as well as surrealism and Freudian psychology, poses a
great number of questions about our common believes about human nature.
Rational thinking and scientific knowledge are just the tip of the iceberg,
since human mind is much more complex than we are willing to admit.
The author
is offering a complex mixture combining mythological and religious symbols, his
admiration for the Italian Renaissance painters, the scientific and
psychological theories of his time, and his very personal view of surrealism.
