What I See in Salvador Dali's "Metamorphosis of Narcissus"

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ANALYSIS OF METAMORPHOSIS OF NARCISSUS BY SALVADOR DALI

Analysis of Metamorphosis of Narcissus (Salvador Dali)

By: Joshua Munoz

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        Salvador Dali, inspired by Roman poet, Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC – AD 17/18) (wikipedia)[b], painted Metamorphosis of Narcissus in 1937. In true surrealistic style, Dali’s painting contemplates the transformation, narcissism; the painting reveals “the human drama of love, death and the transformation known in psychoanalysis as ‘narcissism’.” (Maurell i Constans, 2005). Coupled with a poem by the same name, Dali encourages the viewer to experience the poem and the painting together “in a state of distracted-fixation” (Maurell i Constans, 2005).

        At first glance, the viewer’s eye is drawn to the golden body of Narcissus bent over a pool of water. From a distance, one can see the perfection of his body; moving in closer, however, we see the flaws. Narcissus’ head becomes a cracked walnut. What appears to be a tuft of hair from a distance takes on the appearance of flames from the walnut’s crack on closer inspection. By concentrating on the painting, as Dali suggests, in “distracted-fixation”, the form of Narcissus disappears into the landscape of the painting, transforming into the stone-like hand on the right.

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        Taking a closer look at the hand emerging from the banks of the water reveals the cracked egg from which the narcissus flower is bursting forth. On closer examination, the viewer will see that the crack in the egg is also the shadow, or reflection, of the flower’s shape. The shape of the hand and of the form of Narcissus are identical. This repetition of form confuses the eye at first, the hand actually takes the form of a statue of the man. By focusing on the thumbnail, with it’s crack so similar to the one in the egg, that ...

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