London, GB | Formerly of New York, Buenos Aires, Fife, and the Western Cape. | Saoránach d’Éirinn.

The Dream of Christopher Columbus, sometimes known as “Christopher Columbus Bringing Christianity to America”, by Dalí.

The two orbital paths in an armillary-like fashion around the sea urchin are taken to be a symbol for Man’s conquest of the Moon, which took place some years after the painting was finished.

Huntington Hartford commissioned the painting from Dalí for his Gallery of Modern Art which once stood in New York’s Columbus Circle.

Published at 6:19 pm on Thursday 14 October 2004. Categories: Art Church Tags: , .
Comments

I have a large poster of this painting on my bedroom wall!

Salim

Salim Ghazi Saeedi 26 Jan 2008 2:20 am

If I am Not Wrong st Christopher columbous is a Roman catholic saint .so the Roman catholic church was First in America .If I am Not Wrong please look at the cross it looks like a Knight Templar croos . Want must Under stand Knight Templars Strickly follow The Rule of ST Benedict so Knight Templars cannot become Ecuminical Because there is no Salvation Out side the Room catholi church.

Dr Anthony (Benedictine oblate) 1 Mar 2008 3:44 am

This painting has been misunderstood. What Dali has painted here is the image of a very special person’s life. It has nothing to do with the historical Christopher Columbus, as the New World this person is tied to is nothing like the America that I know in any conceivable way. It isn’t a country that he/she is approaching, it’s a whole world. On the left side of the painting there is Salvador’s wife, Gala, which was his eternal muse, the aura of the sun and moon behind her face. He means to say by using her that the girl beneath her sharing her robe is tied to the muse in her own soul, and Dali himself said that this discovery was under the “immense standard of the immaculate conception.” In the center we have the ship with two sails and on the topmost part the American flag. This is the symbolic representation of the United States. It has two sails with two rose crosses dripping blood as if shot. On the right we have the same person tied to the Muse, only his bottom half is buried in the ground of the New World, his left arm holding an immensely high cross, at the same height as the Muse, but instead of that we have the shadow of his top half fully crucified and hanging from that cross like an apparition. His right hand is sensing the ground. Behind him we have the person, fully clothed in shadow, holding not a cross but a battle axe in his left arm. In the distance behind them, there is that same person, standing waist high in the ocean, naked with his back turned, holding a succession of New flags, signifying the lands that have been conquered by him. This, however, is returning to the past, as only the girl tied to the Muse is moving forward. Hanging on to their robe is a person cowering before her holding a crucifix, possibly worshipping, possibly trying to ward away her spirit like she was a vampire. I’m not sure why she is there, except that when I see her it reminds me of someone holding a crucifix before a vampire. The New World itself was described by Dali as an intergalactic aenima. In the topmost portion of the painting is an immense cuneiform script that has yet to be translated. And in the center of this we have a man and a woman, possibly gods, throwing themselves back as if something terrible has happened, possibly the source of this person who apparently fell from heaven, possibly some travesty in heaven for which she was forsaken. In the bottom left of the painting we see a man that looks like a pope, composed of a succession of immaterial crosses made of light, signifying perhaps the souls sent back from the new world. They are all two dimensional, as Dali makes it very clear in this painting that the other crosses strewn throughout the painting are three dimensional, being composed of two hollow tubes and made from the matter of the New World. Two of these crosses are being sent forward, to the New World and the future. This pope is also holding a staff with the same Rosicrucian cross attached to the staff. This indicates that the sails of the ship of the United States are made of the two-dimensional light-crosses that the “pope” sends back. To me, it’s as if this painting has a resemblance to the idea of the television. The one on the right that’s hanging from a cross is assembled or painted in the same way that a television produces images as well. If you’ll notice, the crucifix the woman cowering is holding is that of Jesus Christ, and it may be that a little known secret in the history of the world is that when he was crucified, he robbed the soul of all women and became her. That’s why (s)he holds it in such fear, because, because of this true woman, the jig is up, so to speak. If you’ll notice also, the crucifix which he is holding is two dimensional and unholy, about the same size and shape of the light-crosses sent back by the “pope” from the end of time. The pope, if you’ll see, is not inhabiting the New World, as he is probably not welcome there, but instead sending unwanted miracles to guide her astray, which is the reason she has her eyes closed and cannot open them, instead ascending to the sun inside. His crosses like targeted miracles from the end of time, he rapes her virgin soul with the United States. And this is the reason that Salvador Dali painted this, because it’s so horrifically fucked up. This girl, I know her, and half of this painting has already come to pass–her left arm, just like in this painting, has been completely removed from her–her soul, crucified. They threw her from a bridge onto a freight train. Is there not a single one of you out there that will save her?

Lee Wolfe 13 Jan 2010 10:30 pm
Leave a comment

NAME (required)

EMAIL (required)

WEBSITE (not required)

COMMENT

Home | About | Contact | Paginated Index | Twitter | Facebook | RSS/Atom Feed
andrewcusack.com | © Andrew Cusack 2004-present (Unless otherwise stated)