Dali – Galatea of the Spheres

Our current blog theme is bubbles in art, and Dali’s ‘Galatea of the Spheres’ fits in perfectly with just that. Whilst bubbles were not Dali’s inspiration for his work it’s interesting to look at how he was inspired to create such a detailed and optically amazing painting from a starting point as simple as a sphere.

Salvador Dali’s work had many themes during his lifetime and at the time this piece was painted (1952) he was very interested in atomic theory and atomic particles. Dali was intrigued by how atomic particles made up matter but contained spaces between them, almost as though they are suspended. Much of his work in the early fifties depicted this curiosity as his subjects were often seen floating in mid-air but not touching, much like the atoms he was interested in.

Using only spheres and perspective, Dali has created a piece that appears almost like an optical illusion, one that takes the eye to infinity and draws you deep into the image.