The Temptation of the Cow in Salvador Dalí's Style
The Temptation of the Cow
in Salvador Dalí's Style
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39 inches by 59 inches, portrait format
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Acrylic on canvas
The model for this painting is The Temptation of St Anthony by Salvador Dalí. It is in landscape format and measures approximately one metre by one metre twenty. A procession of giant animals on long spider legs strides towards a naked man, St Anthony. The picture has a nightmarish effect in Dalí's work. I have enlarged the left part of it.
The scene shows a withered landscape just before a thunderstorm. Oats are growing in the foreground. To be precise, it is just one plant with four ears. One leaf has dried up. Nothing else is growing on the brown soil. A cow rears up in front of the plant. The hind legs are extended by an
extra limb, making the animal look even bigger and more menacing. Its coat is light grey and its udder bright pink. The play of muscles is clearly visible. The lashing tail emphasises the cow's ferocity and the danger to the oats. The coat reflects the bright blue of the sky and the black of the gathering clouds.
I see no future for the oats: they will either be eaten by the cow, trampled by it or washed away by the gathering storm.
