Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening

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 19^th 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.