SALVADOR DALI
TITLE: TERPSICHORE, MUSE OF THE DANCE, 1971
MEDIUM: Bronze sculpture
EDITION: M16/333
SIZE: 30 cm. (11.8 in.)
DESCRIPTION: 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.