![]() "People had even more reason to think of themselves in distinctive American terms." (Noble, 250) Americans, searching for a history and a hero, discovered Columbus. ![]() "The association between Columbus and America took root in the imagination" in the eighteenth century. A vacuum was created, and was slowly filled with the image of Christopher Columbus. The human need to explain origins, to create self-identity through national identity, was thwarted by this reluctance. "Even though every nation needs a mythic explanation of its own creation, that process was paradoxically elaborated by the reluctance of Revolutionary statesmen to have their story told prematurely." (Kammen, 27) To be raised above others would be undemocratic, they believed. Michael Kammen, in his Mystic Chords of Memory explains that "repudiation of the past left Americans of the young republic without a firm foundation on which to base a shared sense of their social selves." (65) A new national story was needed, yet the Revolutionary leaders, obvious choices for mythical transformation, were loath to be raised to their pedestals. Having effected a violent separation from England and its cultural and political icons, America was left without history-or heroes. America, as a young republic, found itself immediately in the middle of an identity crisis. ![]() This gallery was not in place at the birth of the political nation. His status, not unlike most American icons, is representative not of his own accomplishments, but the self-perception of the society which raised him to his pedestal in the American gallery of heroism. Christopher Columbus, as a hero and symbol of the first order in America, is an important figure in this pantheon of American myth. The role of history in the iconography of the United States is pervasive, yet the facts behind the fiction are somehow lost in an amorphous haze of patriotism and perceived national identity. Petersburg, Fl., Salvador Dalí Museum, “Dalí and the Spanish Baroque”Ģ019, St."We arouse and arrange our memories to suit our psychic needs." - Michael KammenĪmerica's national memory is filled with icons and symbols, avatars of deeply held, yet imperfectly understood, beliefs. Dalí uses this myth to underline his patriotic devotion to his homeland's independence.ġ964, New York, Gallery of Modern Art, "Paintings from the Hungtinton Hartford Collection in the Gallery of Modern Art"ġ965, New York, Gallery of Modern Art, “Salvador Dalí, 1910-1965”Ģ007, St. ![]() The flies and the bishop at the bottom left are a reference to a Catalan folk legend (from Girona) about Saint Narciso's crypt. She appears as a saint, suggesting that she is Dalí's muse, and that she is responsible for his own "discovery of America," where he captured the attention of the world through her encouragement. The banner that Columbus is holding bears the likeness of Dalí's wife, Gala. Within these spears, Dalí has painted the image of a crucified Christ, which was based on a drawing by the Spanish mystic Saint John. Dalí borrows the spears from that painting and places them on the right hand side of his work. Dalí's inspiration for this work was "The Surrender of Breda," another painting by Velazquez. At this time, some Catalan historians were claiming that Columbus was actually from Catalonia, not Italy, making the discovery all the more relevant for Dalí, who was also from this region of Spain. It was commissioned for Huntington Hartford's Gallery of Modern Art on Columbus Circle in New York. It combines Spanish history, religion, art and myth into a unified whole. This work is an ambitious homage to Dalí's Spain.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |