Salvador Dali's most expensive painting

"Christ of Saint John of the Cross" (204.8 x 115.9 cm; oil on canvas) was painted by Salvador Dali in 1951 and today is regarded as one of the most famous works by the Catalan artist. In addition, this painting is also the most expensive - the Spanish government was willing to pay $ 127 million for it - but the owner refused to sell it.

Today the painting is on display at the Kelvingrove Museum (Glasgow, Scotland). As a result of a 2006 poll, 29% of Scots called this canvas their favorite one - raher curios fact, taking into account that the gallery was once severely criticized for spending as much as £ 8,200 on the purchase of this work by Dali!

Critics of that time assessed the artist's work rather negatively, calling the painting "banal and traditional" - but time has shown how much they were wrong.

But a few words about the painting Christ of Saint John of the Cross itself: it was created in the midst of the nuclear-mystical period of Dali (oil, canvas), and has, as indicated above, rather impressive dimensions - not yet monumental canvases of subsequent years, but, at the same time, not almost-miniatures of the 30s.

At that time (early 50s), Dali and generally created many canvases on religious themes - in full accordance with the policy of Francoist Spain, where Catholic values, brutally destroyed during the Civil War by the republicans, were again brought into the rank of an official cult.

Dali, a big fan of the dictator Franco, whom he compared no more, no less, as with his beloved Velazquez - was no longer that young and impoverished overthrower and revolutionary who once stood up for world communism and called for the burning of all churches and monasteries in Barcelona ...

At that time (early 50s), Dali and generally created many canvases on religious themes - in full accordance with the policy of Francoist Spain, where Catholic values, brutally destroyed during the Civil War by the republicans, were again brought into the rank of an official cult.

Dali, a big fan of the dictator Franco, whom he compared no more, no less, as with his beloved Velazquez - was no longer that young and impoverished overthrower and revolutionary who once stood up for world communism and called for the burning of all churches and monasteries in Barcelona ...

The days of the anarchic "Yellow Manifesto" ended many years ago. In 1951, in complete contradiction with his own previous statements, the artist published "Mystical Manifesto" (not an accidental similarity of names), in which he attacked all modern art with his characteristic passion, accusing it of unprofessionalism, laziness and atheism. Dali proclaimed himself to be none other than the savior of this very art (in Spanish, "Salvador" just means "savior").

At this time, the artist, in his own words, tried to combine Spanish religious mysticism with the latest achievements of modern science, primarily nuclear physics. But let's return to the picture and let Dali speak about it himself:

"... First of all, in 1950, I saw a" cosmic dream "in which this picture appeared to me in color and which in my dream was the" nucleus of an atom. "This nucleus then acquired a metaphysical meaning, and I considered it as the main component The universe - Christ!

Secondly, when, thanks to the instructions of Father Bruno, the Carmelite, I saw the drawing of Christ painted by St. John of the Cross, I developed a geometric triangle and circle, in which all my previous experiences were “aesthetically” summarized, and I inscribed my drawing of Christ in this triangle.

Initially, I did not want to depict all the attributes of the crucifixion - nails, a crown of thorns, etc. .- and turn the blood into red carnations in the arms and legs, with three jasmine flowers dipped into the wound on the side. But it was only to the end that my decision changed the second vision, perhaps because of a Spanish proverb that says: "there is not enough Christ, too much blood."

In this second dream, I saw a picture without anecdotal attributes: only the metaphysical beauty of Christ-God. ... My aesthetic ambition is that the canvas is the opposite of all the images of Christ made by contemporary artists who have applied an expressionist manner, evoking emotions through ugliness. My main task is to portray the beauty of Christ as God, in what He personifies ... "

It is necessary to tell about Saint John of the Cross himself, who in no case should be confused with John the Baptist. John of the Cross is a Spanish saint, a religious mystic, a reformer of the Carmelite order, who lived in the 16th century, who was close friends with Teresa of Avila and along with her professed a return to fundamental apostolic values: simplicity, non-acquisitiveness, asceticism - everything from which the Catholic Church in the 16th century was infinitely far away.

For his religious convictions, the future saint was repeatedly prosecuted, spent a lot of time in difficult conditions in prison, where he created a real masterpiece of religious poetry - "Spiritual Song". During one of the ecstatic visions so characteristic of Saint Juan, he saw Jesus Christ hanging over the world on a crucifix, and he tried to capture his vision as best he could on paper.

By the way, Saint Juan is buried in the wonderful Spanish city of Ubeda, which we strongly recommend to visit. Details about this city, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

It was this drawing, shown to Salvador Dali by Father Bruno, a Carmelite monk in 1950, that became the starting point for painting. Saint Juan portrayed Jesus as if God the Father was looking at him, from above and from the right - which most obviously influenced the plot of Dali's painting. This is how one mystic stretched out his hand to another from the 16th century to the 20th - and the work began.

Like most of Dalí's masterpieces, "Christ of St. John of the Cross" was painted in Port Lligat, where the artist, after returning from the United States, settled permanently. Dali worked on the canvas for almost two years, and the result of this painstaking work is really amazing.

It is interesting how Dali worked on the image of the crucified Jesus. At the time of creating the canvas, the artist lived in Spain, but the connections that he made in Hollywood were still useful. At the request of Dali, Jack Warner (one of the fathers of Warner Bros.) found a model suitable for the painting (it turned out to be a stuntman Russell Saunders), who was hung on a beam at the angle Dali needed and then photographed. These photographs were sent to Spain, where the artist first completed a series of graphic sketches, which formed the basis for the final image of the crucified Christ.

It is interesting that the appearance of the cross itself, and especially the folded fabric in the upper part of it, unequivocally indicate another Sacrament - the Eucharist, where the cross of Jesus turns into a table on which the Transmuted bread is located. The presence of two perspectives allows us to look at Christ from below, from the level of the earth - and at the same time see him from above, through the eyes of God himself.

As for the landscape at the bottom of the painting with boats and figures of fishermen, evoking associations with both the Sea of Galilee and the paintings by Diego Velazquez - this is the bay of Port Lligate, where Dali's house is located and where the artist painted the canvas. Now let's compare this picture with the photo I took a couple of days ago, during the tour.

As you can see, Dali remains faithful to his beloved Port-Lligat, which, with rare invariability and great love, he has captured in hundreds of his paintings. It goes without saying that one can argue how sincere Dali was in his declarative-aggressive manifestations of Catalocism - but even if Dali was cunning, this somewhat does not detract from the artistic, aesthetic, and religious values of the painting itself. Great talent is needed in order to create masterpieces permeated with a deep religious feeling, while remaining an atheist at heart - and Dali certainly had such a talent! (Read the original text in Russian)