Two Salvador Dali Masterpieces in Bronze

July 31, 2014/Robin Rile

SALVADOR DALI

Salvador DALI (1904-1989)

Terpsichore, Muse of Dance (1971)

Medium-scale Bronze

Edition #M16/333

Height: 30cm (11.8 in)

Terpsichore, Muse of Dance (also known as “Woman in Skirts”)

Our Muse of Music and Dance seems to be about to take off; we can say that she almost levitates. She was intentionally conceived headless in order to show that she didn’t need of a facial expression or ritual mask in order to show her true self – she is the sacred myth of Victory, celebrated in the dance. We don’t need to see her body, the line’s tension, the volume’s play and the careful texture of the bronze in enough to transmit her whole spirit, that of celebration, triumphant after the Victory.

The sculpture presents some physical similarity to the “Victory of Samothrace” (c. 190) today at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

“Nude Ascending the Staircase: Homage to Marcel Duchamps” (a.k.a. “Nu Montant L’Escalier”)

(1973)

Medium-scale Bronze

Edition #AP5/49 (Fonderia Bonvicini, Verone, Italy)

Height: 25cm (9.8 inches)

Literature: Descharnes, Robert & Nicolas “Le Dur et le Mou” catalogue, pg. 162-163, Ref #412

The concept behind this piece is found in Nu Descendant un escalier, numéro 2, a pre-Dadaist piece presented by Marcel Duchamp in the Dalmau Gallery in Barcelona in 1912 at the “First Cubist exhibition” held in Spain.

Nothing could please Dali more, than to pay tribute to his friend Marcel Duchamp by creating the ironic opposite to the famous divisionist painting; hence this beautiful realistic body – which reminds us in the form of Gala, climbing up the spirals in a marine shell, symbol of universal life and eternity. All together, the piece exudes reflection and eroticism.