The persistence of memory. Dalí, 1931

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY

(Dalí, 1931)

The first element in the painting that catches your eye is the presence of these old-fashioned pocket watches that are melting. After that, you become aware of the almost deserted scenery except for the apparently dead tree on the left and the unrecognizable creature in the centre of the painting. Then, it dawns on you the unnatural illumination that transports you to those places in the brain that you only visit in your dreams.

Subjecting the painting to a deeper analysis, we can see the cliffs at the top right hand corner. They are the key of the composition: it is them what is hard, what is perdurable. Contrasting with the hard cliffs are the soft watches and creature that represent degradation, mortality. In fact, the creature is said to be Dalí´s face, soft, quite distorted, with an immense nose, oversized eyelashes, and an enormous tongue protruding from a hidden mouth.

Returning to the watches, as you can see, at the bottom left hand corner lies the only rigid watch, covered with ants, which express rottenness. The other watches symbolize the relativeness of time, as each of them is showing a different time.

Summing up, the painting shows the perishability of human beings in contrast with the perdurability of inanimate objects like those composing the landscape.

The reason why I like this painting, apart from the originality and precision of the style, is that it reminds you of your place in History: how little, unimportant and transitory we are compared with the old Earth.