The Hallucinogenic Bullfighter - Salvador Dalí (after) - Enamel plate - Gilt brass

Artist: Salvador Dalí
Enamel painting 26.2x29, gold outline, reproduction.
Completed in 1970, also known as "The Hallucinogenic Toreador".

It is one of the artist's most heterogeneous compositions.
It is a major work on which he worked for two years. It brings together a large part of Dalí's visual themes, exploded into a profusion of details and finally gathered in the great figure, well hidden, of the torero following the paranoiac-critical method dear to the author.
But the figure of the torero still has to reveal itself: the clear rounded shape of the arena forms the montera, the round hat typical. The right eye is formed by a white blot attached to a black pupil formed by the right cheek of Venus, from which a pearly tear flows. The left eye stands out in the shadow, between the arm and chest of the larger Venus. The shadow under the nose is the shadow of the left breast of the central Venus, the mouth bars its abdomen. The right flank of the great Venus on the right forms the edge of the cheekbone and the left cheek of the torero. The white shirt is formed by the drapery of the two central Venuses and the green shadow represents the tie. A small button fastening the shirt is even visible. Finally, it is the body of the dead bull that mimics the iridescence of the jacket of the suit of lights (chaquetilla).
The grave, sad, almost emaciated face is that of Manolete, the famous Spanish matador of the 1940s, killed by the bull Islero on August 29, 1947 in the Linares arena.