The Ecumenical Council (painting)
Encyclopedia
The Ecumenical Council is a surrealist painting by Spanish artist Salvador Dalí
completed in 1960. It is one of his masterpieces, taking two years to complete and very large at 299.7 by 254 cm (118 by 100 in). The painting is a complex assemblage
of art historical references and religious scenes emphasizing Catholic symbolism.
Dalí was inspired to paint The Ecumenical Council upon the 1958 election of Pope John XXIII
, as the pope had extended communication to Geoffrey Fisher
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
; the first such invitation in more than four centuries. The painting expresses Dalí's renewed hope in religious leadership following the devastation of World War II
.
Today, it is housed in the Salvador Dalí Museum
in St. Petersburg, Florida
.
John Canaday
later characterized as "the naughtiness that obsessed him". His work began to take on darker, more violent overtones during World War II
. Possibly spurred both by the death of his father in 1950 and his interest in the writings of a French theologian, Dalí began to incorporate religious iconography in his work.
He was by this time an international star and able to secure an audience with Pope Pius XII
. By the late 1950s, both religious and cosmic matters preoccupied his work while his canvases became especially large, as if, according to author Kenneth Wach, he was "motivated by a desire to match such admired historical antecedents as the Spanish artists Murillo
, Velázquez
, and Zurbarán
, and thereby to secure his place in the art of the century". When a new pope was being considered in 1958, Dalí was an enthusiastic supporter of Angelo Guiseppe Cardinal Roncalli, to the extent that Roncalli's ear became the subject of his trompe-l'œil composition The Sistine Madonna (1958).
: a youthful Father
extends an arm to cover his face and is shown without genitals. Below and to the left of God is Jesus
, holding a cross. The Holy Spirit
floats to the right with its face obscured while a dove flies overhead. Between Jesus and the Holy Spirit is a scene from the Papal coronation. Dalí's wife Gala
is shown kneeling under this area, holding a book and a cross. Beside her are the Cap de Creus
cliffs. Dalí did not sign the canvas; instead he included a self-portrait in the lower left corner, looking out at the viewer as he stands in front of a blank canvas.
The top and bottom portions of the composition are markedly different, as the figures above are not sharply defined and they blend into each other with sweeping clouds. The figures, rock, and water in the lower portion, in contrast, are clear and have distinct shapes and lines. The merging between the two parts of the canvas is Dalí's depiction of the marriage between heaven and earth. A preparatory study for The Ecumenical Council was eventually exhibited as The Trinity. Scholars debate as to who is represented by the figures in both works. The top figure, commonly recognized as God the Father, is more reminiscent of a naked, suffering Christ (the study depicts the top figure with male genitalia). The lower figures are androgynous, wearing gowns and posing with traditionally feminine attributes. The lower right figure, which is recognized as the Holy Spirit by the dove over its head, has its hands crossed, a gesture associated with the Annunciation
: the revelation that Mary will give birth to Christ. It is unclear if the dove in The Ecumenical Council is a symbol of the Holy Spirit or a messenger from the archangel Gabriel
.
, and was completed in time for the 300th anniversary of his death. Dalí had long been influenced by Velázquez, and used images from The Surrender of Breda
(1634–35) in his The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
completed the previous year. As with Dalí, Velázquez painted himself into his Las Meninas
(1656), at the lower left portion of the canvas looking out at the viewer with canvas and brush. The arch (St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
) under which God floats in the painting and the composition of the trinity based on Michelangelo
's The Last Judgment
(1537–41) are references to the art of the Renaissance
.
Dalí considered some forms of 20th-century modern art
"barbaric" and attempted in his art and writings to promote a more classical painting style. He wrote a book about painting titled 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship (1948) in which he describes his inspiration to write it: "Now at forty-five I want to paint a masterpiece and to save Modern Art from chaos and laziness. I will succeed! This book is consecrated to this crusade and I dedicate it to all the young, who have faith in true painting." Modern art techniques, however, are also evident in the piece. George Orwell
, who wrote a critique of Dalí's novel Hidden Faces, writes that Dalí admitted that the rocks in The Ecumenical Council are abstract compositions that serve as symbols. Dalí, according to Orwell, draws influence from Mariano Fortuny
, a 19th-century Spanish painter.
in 1958. When John XXIII met with Geoffrey Fisher
, the Archbishop of Canterbury, it was the first time the two churches had officially communicated in 426 years. Dalí was enthusiastic about the meeting. He was asked to design a cathedral in Arizona that never came to fruition. However, to discuss the design, in 1959 Dalí requested an audience with the pope. Dalí's vision for the cathedral was that it should be shaped like a pear, which to him represented the resurrection of the Middle Ages, the resurgence of Christian unity and was an appropriate symbol for the council in which the pope and the archbishop would meet.
Dalí's wife, Gala, whose given name was Elena Ivanovna Diakonov, often served as his model and muse. In this piece, as in The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Gala represents St. Helena (some sources state Gala's name was Hélèna), the mother of Constantine I
, who became the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. St. Helena in Christian theology is the discoverer of the True Cross
. Gala holds the same cross that Jesus does, offering it forward to the viewer. Gala's pose amid clouds, water, and rocks appeared in Dalí's earlier work St. Helen of Port Lligat (1956). The cross that Jesus holds in The Ecumenical Council is the lateral central point in the composition (Dalí often included geometric designs and symbolism on canvases in his later works), to represent the central mystery of the trinity. The cliffs of Cap de Creus represent the rock upon which St. Peter built the Christian church, but have Spanish origins. Dalí grew up in Port Lligat
, whose patron saint is Helena, often using the surrounding scenery in his paintings, and worked in a studio there where he painted The Ecumenical Council. The Spanish aspects of the painting are Dalí's expressions of patriotism.
Dalí portrays Jesus without solid form in the painting, achieved with rapid strokes to evoke a mystic or atomic energy. Scientific theory preoccupied Dalí in the later half of the 20th century, and he represented the structure of atoms and DNA in several works. Scholars suggest that Dalí was influenced by the ideas of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
, a French theologian who proposed that all knowledge—specifically scientific and religious—should be fully integrated and lead to a final "omega point". The interconnectedness of ideas espoused by Chardin is represented by the multiple images that blend into each other in the painting.
Dalí became friends with American art collectors Albert Reynolds and Eleanor Morse
in 1943. Their first purchase was Dalí's war-inspired Daddy Longlegs of the Evening ... Hope! (1940), and after a few acquisitions from his shows, the Morses bought pieces directly from his studio. Gala sold The Ecumenical Council to the Morses for $100,000 ($ in 2010), stipulating that it had to paid in cash, in Spanish pesatas. The Morses originally housed their Dalí collection in a specially built wing of A.R. Morse's engineering firm in Beachwood, Ohio
. However, the size of their collection—both in number and dimensions—outgrew the facilities. The City of St. Petersburg, Florida
offered to build a museum to house and manage all the pieces. It opened as the Salvador Dalí Museum
in 1982, with 95 paintings, including other Dalí masterworks (the museum considers unusually large pieces taking two years to complete as masterpieces) such as The Hallucinogenic Toreador
(1970), Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid
(1963), Nature Morte Vivante (1956) and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The Ecumenical Council is currently shown in the Salvador Dalí Museum. The Trinity is housed in the Musei Vaticani in Vatican City
.
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
completed in 1960. It is one of his masterpieces, taking two years to complete and very large at 299.7 by 254 cm (118 by 100 in). The painting is a complex assemblage
Assemblage (art)
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects...
of art historical references and religious scenes emphasizing Catholic symbolism.
Dalí was inspired to paint The Ecumenical Council upon the 1958 election of Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
, as the pope had extended communication to Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, GCVO, PC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.-Background:...
, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
; the first such invitation in more than four centuries. The painting expresses Dalí's renewed hope in religious leadership following the devastation of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Today, it is housed in the Salvador Dalí Museum
Salvador Dalí Museum
The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, houses the largest collection outside Europe of the works of the artist Salvador Dalí and is located on the Downtown St. Petersburg waterfront.-History:...
in St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
.
Background
Salvador Dalí was 54 years old when he began to paint The Ecumenical Council. He was established as a surrealist with a reputation for shocking audiences with fantastic imagery, something that New York Times chief art criticArt critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
John Canaday
John Canaday
John Edwin Canaday was a leading American art critic, author and art historian.-Early life:...
later characterized as "the naughtiness that obsessed him". His work began to take on darker, more violent overtones during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Possibly spurred both by the death of his father in 1950 and his interest in the writings of a French theologian, Dalí began to incorporate religious iconography in his work.
He was by this time an international star and able to secure an audience with Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
. By the late 1950s, both religious and cosmic matters preoccupied his work while his canvases became especially large, as if, according to author Kenneth Wach, he was "motivated by a desire to match such admired historical antecedents as the Spanish artists Murillo
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children...
, Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
, and Zurbarán
Francisco Zurbarán
Francisco de Zurbarán was a Spanish painter. He is known primarily for his religious paintings depicting monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lifes...
, and thereby to secure his place in the art of the century". When a new pope was being considered in 1958, Dalí was an enthusiastic supporter of Angelo Guiseppe Cardinal Roncalli, to the extent that Roncalli's ear became the subject of his trompe-l'œil composition The Sistine Madonna (1958).
Description
The Ecumenical Council is an assemblage of religious scenes and other symbols with personal significance to Dalí that he often repeated in his works. At the top center of the piece is the holy trinityTrinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
: a youthful Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...
extends an arm to cover his face and is shown without genitals. Below and to the left of God is Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, holding a cross. The Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
floats to the right with its face obscured while a dove flies overhead. Between Jesus and the Holy Spirit is a scene from the Papal coronation. Dalí's wife Gala
Gala Dalí
Gala Dalí , usually known simply as Gala, was the wife of first Paul Éluard, then Salvador Dalí, and an inspiration for them and many other writers and artists.- Early years :...
is shown kneeling under this area, holding a book and a cross. Beside her are the Cap de Creus
Cap de Creus
Cap de Creus is a peninsula and a headland located at the far NE of Catalonia, some 25 km south from the French border. The nearest town is Figueres, capital of the Alt Empordà and birthplace of Salvador Dalí...
cliffs. Dalí did not sign the canvas; instead he included a self-portrait in the lower left corner, looking out at the viewer as he stands in front of a blank canvas.
The top and bottom portions of the composition are markedly different, as the figures above are not sharply defined and they blend into each other with sweeping clouds. The figures, rock, and water in the lower portion, in contrast, are clear and have distinct shapes and lines. The merging between the two parts of the canvas is Dalí's depiction of the marriage between heaven and earth. A preparatory study for The Ecumenical Council was eventually exhibited as The Trinity. Scholars debate as to who is represented by the figures in both works. The top figure, commonly recognized as God the Father, is more reminiscent of a naked, suffering Christ (the study depicts the top figure with male genitalia). The lower figures are androgynous, wearing gowns and posing with traditionally feminine attributes. The lower right figure, which is recognized as the Holy Spirit by the dove over its head, has its hands crossed, a gesture associated with the Annunciation
Annunciation
The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
: the revelation that Mary will give birth to Christ. It is unclear if the dove in The Ecumenical Council is a symbol of the Holy Spirit or a messenger from the archangel Gabriel
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an Archangel who typically serves as a messenger to humans from God.He first appears in the Book of Daniel, delivering explanations of Daniel's visions. In the Gospel of Luke Gabriel foretells the births of both John the Baptist and of Jesus...
.
Influences
The painting represents several of Dalí's ideas on art and religion. It is heavily inspired by Diego VelázquezDiego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
, and was completed in time for the 300th anniversary of his death. Dalí had long been influenced by Velázquez, and used images from The Surrender of Breda
The Surrender of Breda
La rendición de Breda , also known as El cuadro de las lanzas or Las lanzas, is a painting by Velázquez, painted during the years 1634–35, and inspired while Velázquez was visiting Italy with Ambrosio Spinola, the Italian general who conquered Breda on June 5, 1625. It is considered one of...
(1634–35) in his The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is the name of a painting by artist Salvador Dalí, begun in 1958 and finished in 1959. It is over 14 feet tall and over 9 feet wide , one in a series of large paintings Dalí did during this era.-Description:This work is an ambitious homage to Dali's...
completed the previous year. As with Dalí, Velázquez painted himself into his Las Meninas
Las Meninas
Las Meninas is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age, in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The work's complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures...
(1656), at the lower left portion of the canvas looking out at the viewer with canvas and brush. The arch (St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
) under which God floats in the painting and the composition of the trinity based on Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
's The Last Judgment
The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
The Last Judgment is a canonical fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City...
(1537–41) are references to the art of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
.
Dalí considered some forms of 20th-century modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
"barbaric" and attempted in his art and writings to promote a more classical painting style. He wrote a book about painting titled 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship (1948) in which he describes his inspiration to write it: "Now at forty-five I want to paint a masterpiece and to save Modern Art from chaos and laziness. I will succeed! This book is consecrated to this crusade and I dedicate it to all the young, who have faith in true painting." Modern art techniques, however, are also evident in the piece. George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, who wrote a critique of Dalí's novel Hidden Faces, writes that Dalí admitted that the rocks in The Ecumenical Council are abstract compositions that serve as symbols. Dalí, according to Orwell, draws influence from Mariano Fortuny
Mariano Fortuny (painter)
Marià Fortuny i Marsal , known more simply as Marià Fortuny or Mariano Fortuny, was a Catalan painter...
, a 19th-century Spanish painter.
Symbolism
Religious symbols are pervasive throughout the piece. The title is an homage to the coronation of Angelo Guiseppe Cardinal Roncalli, who became Pope John XXIIIPope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
in 1958. When John XXIII met with Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, GCVO, PC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.-Background:...
, the Archbishop of Canterbury, it was the first time the two churches had officially communicated in 426 years. Dalí was enthusiastic about the meeting. He was asked to design a cathedral in Arizona that never came to fruition. However, to discuss the design, in 1959 Dalí requested an audience with the pope. Dalí's vision for the cathedral was that it should be shaped like a pear, which to him represented the resurrection of the Middle Ages, the resurgence of Christian unity and was an appropriate symbol for the council in which the pope and the archbishop would meet.
Dalí's wife, Gala, whose given name was Elena Ivanovna Diakonov, often served as his model and muse. In this piece, as in The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, Gala represents St. Helena (some sources state Gala's name was Hélèna), the mother of Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
, who became the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. St. Helena in Christian theology is the discoverer of the True Cross
True Cross
The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a Christian tradition, are believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.According to post-Nicene historians, Socrates Scholasticus and others, the Empress Helena The True Cross is the name for physical remnants which, by a...
. Gala holds the same cross that Jesus does, offering it forward to the viewer. Gala's pose amid clouds, water, and rocks appeared in Dalí's earlier work St. Helen of Port Lligat (1956). The cross that Jesus holds in The Ecumenical Council is the lateral central point in the composition (Dalí often included geometric designs and symbolism on canvases in his later works), to represent the central mystery of the trinity. The cliffs of Cap de Creus represent the rock upon which St. Peter built the Christian church, but have Spanish origins. Dalí grew up in Port Lligat
Port Lligat
Port Lligat or Portlligat is a small village located in a small bay on Cap de Creus peninsula, on the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean Sea, near the city of Cadaqués in the Alt Empordà comarca, in Girona province, Catalonia, Spain...
, whose patron saint is Helena, often using the surrounding scenery in his paintings, and worked in a studio there where he painted The Ecumenical Council. The Spanish aspects of the painting are Dalí's expressions of patriotism.
Dalí portrays Jesus without solid form in the painting, achieved with rapid strokes to evoke a mystic or atomic energy. Scientific theory preoccupied Dalí in the later half of the 20th century, and he represented the structure of atoms and DNA in several works. Scholars suggest that Dalí was influenced by the ideas of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
, a French theologian who proposed that all knowledge—specifically scientific and religious—should be fully integrated and lead to a final "omega point". The interconnectedness of ideas espoused by Chardin is represented by the multiple images that blend into each other in the painting.
Provenance
Dalí's study, The Trinity, is a smaller painting measuring 58.4 by 66 cm (23 by 26 in). As with The Ecumenical Council, he displays the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: God floating with his face blocked by his hand above Jesus, whose foot is extended and who points upward, with a faceless Holy Spirit. It was exhibited with The Ecumenical Council at the Carstairs Gallery in New York in 1960, whereupon critic Michael Strauss expressed his impression that Dalí was "a very different person" from the previous creator of lascivious works of art. During the exhibition Dalí stated that The Ecumenical Council commemorated "the greatest historical event of our time and which, prudently, I have painted before it has met".Dalí became friends with American art collectors Albert Reynolds and Eleanor Morse
A. Reynolds Morse & Eleanor R. Morse
Albert Reynolds Morse was an American businessman and philanthropist. His wife, Eleanor Reese Morse was also an American philanthropist. They founded the Salvador Dalí Museum in St.Petersburg, Florida.-Early life:Reynolds Morse was born in Denver, Colorado to Bradish P. and Anna Morse...
in 1943. Their first purchase was Dalí's war-inspired Daddy Longlegs of the Evening ... Hope! (1940), and after a few acquisitions from his shows, the Morses bought pieces directly from his studio. Gala sold The Ecumenical Council to the Morses for $100,000 ($ in 2010), stipulating that it had to paid in cash, in Spanish pesatas. The Morses originally housed their Dalí collection in a specially built wing of A.R. Morse's engineering firm in Beachwood, Ohio
Beachwood, Ohio
-External links:* *...
. However, the size of their collection—both in number and dimensions—outgrew the facilities. The City of St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
offered to build a museum to house and manage all the pieces. It opened as the Salvador Dalí Museum
Salvador Dalí Museum
The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, houses the largest collection outside Europe of the works of the artist Salvador Dalí and is located on the Downtown St. Petersburg waterfront.-History:...
in 1982, with 95 paintings, including other Dalí masterworks (the museum considers unusually large pieces taking two years to complete as masterpieces) such as The Hallucinogenic Toreador
The Hallucinogenic Toreador
The Hallucinogenic Toreador is an oil painting. Salvador Dalí painted it in 1970, following the canons of his particular interpretation of surrealist thought. It is currently being exhibited at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. In this piece, Dali transmits his passion for...
(1970), Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid
Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid
Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacid is a 1963 painting by Salvador Dalí. The painting's title is a portmanteau of the name of Dali's wife, Gala Dalí, and Deoxyribonucleic acid . It is a tribute to Francis Crick and James D...
(1963), Nature Morte Vivante (1956) and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The Ecumenical Council is currently shown in the Salvador Dalí Museum. The Trinity is housed in the Musei Vaticani in Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
.