Salvador Dalí

Gallery Edition Sonet/Gunnar Bergström
Private Collection (acquired from the above and sold: Christie's, London, February 5, 2008, lot 607)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Hinged to mount at all corners and center of bottom edge. Executed on a Japan sheet full of natural fibers. There are a few creases along right edge. One repaired tear ½ inch in length, along the right edge near the center of the sheet. Small filled paper repair, near lower right. There is a repaired loss in Zeus’ beard, and a 1 inch repaired area (which shows replaced sheet and infilled ink, heightened with white) at the top of Zeus’ head. Otherwise fine. The work is very fresh and media looks vibrant. Verso: slight staining, otherwise fine.
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This work is the original drawing for the print Athene, published in the porfolio Mythologie in 1965.

The ancient world, and classical mythology in particular, remained a source of fascination and inspiration for Dalí throughout his long and prolific artistic career.  In the present work, we see to the left, drawn in pen with swift assurance, the birth of Athena, who sprang fully formed from the head of Zeus, armed for battle. 

According to Hesiod (Theogony, Greek Epic, 8th-7th c. B.C., trans, Evelyn-White).  "Now Zeus, king of the gods, made Metis his wife first, and she was wisest among gods.... But when she was about to bring forth the goddess bright-eyed Athene, Zeus craftily deceived her with cunning words and put her in his own belly... to the end that no other should hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of Zeus; for very wise children were destined to be born of her.., a son of overbearing spirit, king of gods and men....  Therefore did Zeus... swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived Pallas Athene: and the father of men and gods gave her birth by way of his head.... arrayed in arms of war."

Dalí has chosen as the inspiration for his rendering of Athena the famed Athena Promachos which once stood at the heart of the Acropolis in Athens, which, in turn, serves as the model for the mountaintop temple to the upper left, here surely representing Olympus, home of Athena and the other gods.  Athena carries her spear and shield, the Aegis, along with her distinctive helmet and scale mantle.  As Hesiod described, she was "arrayed in arms of war" from the moment of her birth, befitting the goddess of tactics and strategy. 

The small figure to the right also recalls a celebrated Greek sculpture, Aristogeiton from the Harmodius and Aristogeiton group, sculpted by Kritios to honor the duo that killed the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus. Whatever the source material, Dalí makes it his own through a surrealist metamorphosis.

Fig 1.  Archaic Athena Promachos, marble, 1^st Century AD, National Museum, Naples