AENEAS AND DALÍ: THE GENESIS OF A NEW WORLD

Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man

AENEAS AND DALÍ: THE GENESIS OF A NEW WORLD

Looking back in history at the story of Aeneas and at the paintings of Dalí,

one can state that both Aeneas, the Trojan hero that left Troy to later found Rome, and

Dalí, the talented artist from Spain that expressed images through unconventional

techniques and distortions, have exceeded time and space through their journeys,

founding a new genesis of the world.

Aeneas began his exploits in mythology as one of the defenders of the

legendary city of Troy, which the Greeks destroyed. After the war was over, Aeneas and

some of his followers traveled to the land that would soon be known as Italy, and

according to the Romans, he founded Rome, and became its first legendary hero. One can

state that Aeneas is the founder of a new world just as God who calls Abram, tells him to

travel in the world because He was going to make a new nation: “The Lord had said to

Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's

house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will

bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those

who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the

earth shall be blessed.’”1 Thus, Aeneas becomes the demiurge that fashions and arranges

the physical world, who takes the preexisting materials of chaos (Troy), arranges them

according to the models of eternal forms (undertakes a long voyage), and produces all the

physical things of a new world (Rome).

In a similar manner, Salvador Dalí undertakes an artistic journey that

reveals another origin of the genesis of people, founding “a genuine cultural and spiritual

1
Genesis 12:1-3, Holy Bible, New International Version, 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society, USA, p.
10

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AENEAS AND DALÍ: THE GENESIS OF A NEW WORLD

heritage”2 as presented in his painting Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New

Man.

Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man is the perfect

example of the struggle of successfully coming out into the world. A dark umbrella type

canvas shades over a large egg shaped world. It has what appears to be a young male

fighting and struggling trying to get out. The world is resting on top of a bright white

canvas with thick blood draining on to it from the opening of the world. On the outside of

this, a person, who appears to be both man and woman is standing pointing at this event

unfolding as a young child is gripping tightly to the person watching with his or her eyes

full of curiosity.

This painting suggests the struggle of becoming a new man, the renewal

and rebirth of a new world that covers a long process of creation in order to create life. It

is a mixture of fascination, incredulity and fear in the face of new and boundless world.

The symbolic reinterpretation of Aeneas’s journey, seen through the eyes of

Salvador Dalí, is represented in the image of the egg from which emerged the Roman

Empire. Just as the young man in the painting is fighting to be born of the world, Aeneas’s

journey can be related to the struggles and the hassles of chaos transformed eventually

into order.

One can assume that the man in the painting represents the people,

personified in the character of Aeneas who has come a long journey, leaving Troy,

wandering for nine years until founding Rome and, that now can free itself of the past and

2
Fiorella Nicosia, Dalí – Life and Work. Painters of Genius Collection, no. 9, Adevarul Holding Publishing,
Bucuresti, 2009, p. 7

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AENEAS AND DALÍ: THE GENESIS OF A NEW WORLD

thus rebirth into a new world, the Roman Empire. This new world is the symbol of the

new order, a new beginning of a perfect world.

The egg is a continuous symbol in many of Dali’s paintings, it is seen in

countless works and each time it is used it appears to take on a new meaning. In

Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man, the egg is a symbol of life, the

symbol of creation of the world, the symbol of birth and rebirth, an apparently lifeless

object out of which life comes. The cracked egg symbolizes the making way for a newborn

creature. The egg represents the Creation, the elements, and the world itself, with the

shell representing the firmament, the vault of the sky where the fiery stars lie; the thin

membrane symbolizing air; the white symbolizing the waters; and the yolk representing

earth. The blood seen in the painting suggests the past struggles that Aeneas had to face

in order to resurrect again. One can say that the longing of all men comes to be expressed

in this noble painting.

Both Aeneas and Dalí have given people the chance to start all over again,

to relive a new genesis that would fill them with love and hope. Aeneas’s journey

embodies the great ideal which serves as an interpretation of history and of the world in

which man finds himself. It gives expression to a pervading human sympathy to which

the human mind and heart from one age to another instinctively resound. Salvador Dalí

exposes through “concrete images”3 the journey of Aeneas to recreate the genesis of the

world so that people should enjoy again Paradise and experience the catharsis of their

struggle.

3
Salvador Dalí: We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Through Abstract art will have been good for
one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.

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AENEAS AND DALÍ: THE GENESIS OF A NEW WORLD

Bibliography

Primary sources:

Fiorella Nicosia, Dalí – Life and Work. Painters of Genius Collection, no. 9, Adevarul

Holding Publishing, Bucuresti, 2009

Holy Bible, New International Version, 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society,

USA

Internet sources:

Salvador Dalí Qoutes:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/salvador_dali.html

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