The span of repeated Venus de Milo sculptures dominates the piece; in which Dali activates the negative space in order to create the silhouettes; the dark shadows contrasting with the yellow highlight. The body of the Venus de Milo with the green and white skirt makes up the face of the toreador, while her clothes represent the bullfighter’s shirt and tie. Towards the bottom left, there is a cube made out of bursting, colorful dots; providing the painting with a sense of movement. In the upper right hand corner, the evenly spaced out flies create a disturbing pattern throughout the artwork.
As is common with most of Dali’s work, The Hallucinogenic Toreador presents the viewer with many symbols. Initially, what is clear is the connection to the artist’s Spanish culture. The Venus’s skirts are arranged in such a way that it looks like the
Spanish flag, and furthermore the painting is set in a bullfighting ring, which plays a large role in Spanish society. At the Dali Museum, I learned that Salvador Dali was fascinated by physics, which could be the reason behind the exploding molecules near the center of the piece.
Citation: http://thedali.org/exhibit/hallucinogenic-toreador/
Citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Song_of_Love
In The Song of Love, there are three main objects: a ball, a rubber glove, and the head of a classic Greek statue. In the background are buildings and a train. Chirico used primary colors to attract attention towards the symbolic objects; the red glove, the blue sky, and the yellow wood. The three main objects mentioned before, make up the colors of the Italian flag, Chirico’s nationality. Thin, black lines outline most of the objects’ shapes. There is value, in that each object is shaded with black.
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