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The Apotheosis of Homer: Diurnal Dream of Gala

Dreamed c. 1943? by Gala Dalí, painted 1944-5 by Salvador Dalí.

In this painting Salvador shows his wife Gala sleeping at the beach (in the shade on the right) while all around the cove, chaos erupts. He painted another of Gala's dreams around the same time: Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking. There, the images are feverish but make Dalí-ish sense--the bee's black and gold (and the sting) magnify in her dream into leaping tigers and bayonets. While I disagree with Salvador's (Freudian, pre-REM) dream theories, Bee makes sense; he explained it cogently in an interview.

This dream, in contrast, looks epic... and chaotic.

The Apotheosis of Homer: a Diurnal Dream of Gala, painted by Dali. Click to enlarge.
I see a four-ring circus here. Separate dreams, or four scenes in a single dream? They don't feel too unified, except by a feverish, creepy mood. Left to right...
  1. A conveyer belt from over the horizon delivers peaches that turn to bells then walnuts then busts (of Homer?) then bones. Are these dreams? Chains of association?
  2. A huge, vaguely phallic rock with a moustached, bearded face, more Cervantes than Homeric. A face peers out the mouth. Ants crawl, a Dalian symbol of decay.
  3. Is that Triton out at sea, riding in a horsedrawn shell, in a crowd of spirits? Is he meddling with Odysseus, or taking Homer off to the heavens, or...?
  4. On the shore rises a tormented stone parody of Gala's bust and raised arms. Stringy, bony, mostly air and armatures. Is that a sarcophagus to the right? Uh-oh!
It's a vivid depiction of incoherent dreams--which is plausible for a beach nap. The light and noise inevitably disrupt dream-continuity. EEG studies show long coherent dreams mostly happen deep in the night after hours of lighter sleep (though inexperienced dreamers may have more recall from sudden wake-ups).

So... did Gala really dream all this or did Salvador (being Dalí) just have to spice it up, or even make up the dream entirely? Dream Caused by a Bee... seems pretty likely hers--it's one of the "cosigned" pieces--but here I can't be sure. I can't even see the signatuire. It's not the Hebrew inscription, lower right; my Hebrew is terrible, but it says something like "raatat kaq" ("rotted cock?"); certainly not Gala, Salvador or Dalí).

SOURCE: Salvador Dalí by Eric Shanes, (2014), pp 154-5.


LISTS AND LINKS: the beach - rocks - nudity - epic dreams - fruit - bones - sculpture - genital symbolism - bugs - gods & goddesses - horses - coffins & death - hypnogogic dreams? - oil & acrylic dream art - more Dalí - dreamer/artist collaborations - Victorian artist JA Fitzgerald's feverish Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of

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