Dali's Surreal Twist to Antiquity!

In Rhinocerotic Disintegration of Illissus of Phidias (1954), Dali was inspired by a work from the ancient Greek sculptor, Phidias -- and by Dali's own deep fascination with mathematical principles and nuclear physics.

It was thus perfectly logical -- and wonderfully Dalinian -- for the Surrealist master to re-imagine Phidias's headless sculpture disintegrating into the parts of which it's made: atomic particles shown as a kind of confetti of rhinoceros horns. Dali added a starfish and sea urchin to link the work to the watery environs of the Mediterranean Sea, on which Dali and Gala lived, at Port Lligat, Spain, virtually all their lives.

Dali observed that the rhino horn is one of the rare naturally occurring forms in nature that approximates the curve of the logarithmic spiral -- an underlying geometric principle that lends visual harmony and balance to masterful paintings. The geometrical box within the chest of the sculpted figure accords with the mathematical ethos of this remarkable painting.

I would note, however, that while the title suggests "disintegration," what Dali was actually showing, simultaneously, was the integration of the atomic-like particles that make up matter -- these countless parts that make up the whole. Dali was about construction, not destruction.
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