''Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)'' is a 1954 oil-on-canvas painting by

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

. A nontraditional,

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

portrayal of the Crucifixion, it depicts Christ on a polyhedron net of a

tesseract In geometry, a tesseract or 4-cube is a four-dimensional hypercube, analogous to a two-dimensional square and a three-dimensional cube. Just as the perimeter of the square consists of four edges and the surface of the cube consists of six ...

(hypercube). It is one of his best-known paintings from the later period of his career.

Background

During the 1940s and 1950s Dalí's interest in traditional surrealism diminished and he became fascinated with

nuclear science Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

, feeling that "thenceforth, the atom was isfavorite food for thought". The

atomic bombing Atomic may refer to: * Of or relating to the atom, the smallest particle of a chemical element that retains its chemical properties * Atomic physics, the study of the atom * Atomic Age, also known as the "Atomic Era" * Atomic scale, distances comp ...

at the end of World War II left a lasting impression; his 1951 essay "Mystical Manifesto" introduced an art theory he called "nuclear mysticism" that combined his interests in

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, mathematics, science, and Catalan culture in an effort to reestablish classical values and techniques, which he extensively utilized in ''Corpus Hypercubus''. That same year, to promote nuclear mysticism and explain the "return to spiritual classicism movement" in modern art, he traveled throughout the United States giving lectures. Before painting ''Corpus Hypercubus'', Dalí announced his intention to portray an exploding Christ using both classical painting techniques along with the motif of the cube, and he declared that "this painting will be the great

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

work of issummer". Juan de Herrera's ''Treatise on Cubic Forms'' was particularly influential to Dalí.

Composition and meaning

''Corpus Hypercubus'' is painted in oil on canvas, and its dimensions are 194.3 cm × 123.8 cm (76.5 in × 48.75 in). Consistent with his theory of nuclear mysticism, Dalí uses classical elements along with ideas inspired by mathematics and science. Some noticeably classic features are the drapery of the clothing and the Caravaggesque lighting that theatrically envelops Christ, though like his 1951 painting '' Christ of Saint John of the Cross'', ''Corpus Hypercubus'' takes the traditional biblical scene of Christ's Crucifixion and almost completely reinvents it. The union of Christ and the tesseract reflects Dalí's opinion that the seemingly separate and incompatible concepts of science and religion can in fact coexist. Upon completing ''Corpus Hypercubus'', Dalí described his work as "metaphysical, transcendent

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

". While he did attempt to distance himself from the Surrealist movement after his development of nuclear mysticism, in ''Corpus Hypercubus'' Dalí incorporates dreamlike features consistent with his earlier work, such as the levitating Christ and the giant chessboard below. Jesus' face is turned away from the viewer, making it completely obscured. The crown of thorns is missing from Christ's head as are the nails from his hands and feet, leaving his body completely devoid of the wounds often closely associated with the Crucifixion. With ''Christ of Saint John of the Cross'', Dalí did the same in order to leave only the "metaphysical beauty of Christ-God". Dalí sets the painting at the bay of his hometown Port Lligat in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, which is also the setting of other paintings of his including '' The Madonna of Port Lligat'', '' The Sacrament of the Last Supper'', and ''Christ of Saint John of the Cross''. A viewer's eyes may quickly be drawn to the knees of Christ, which have a grotesque exaggeration of hyperrealistic detail. On close observation of the original painting, five different images of Dalí's wife

Gala Gala may refer to: Music * ''Gala'' (album), a 1990 album by the English alternative rock band Lush * Gala (singer), Italian singer and songwriter *'' Gala – The Collection'', a 2016 album by Sarah Brightman * GALA Choruses, an association of ...

appear in Christ's right knee, and five different images of Dalí himself appear in the left knee; the most prominent two being Gala's back/neck/back of head with right arm extended upward, and Dalí's own face complete with his trademark upswept mustache. The additional embedded images are more difficult to see in low-quality reproductions or prints.

Tesseract

The most striking change Dalí makes from nearly every other crucifixion painting concerns the cross, which he transforms into an unfolded net of a

(also known as a hypercube). The unfolding of a tesseract into eight cubes is analogous to unfolding the sides of a cube into six squares. The use of a hypercube for the cross has been interpreted as a geometric symbol for the transcendental nature of God. Just as the concept of God exists in a space that is incomprehensible to humans, the hypercube exists in four spatial dimensions, which is equally inaccessible to the mind. The net of the hypercube is a three-dimensional representation of it, similar to how Christ is a human form of God that is more relatable to people. The word "corpus" in the title can refer both to the body of Christ and to geometric figures, reinforcing the link Dalí makes between religion and mathematics and science. Christ's levitation above the Earth could symbolize His rise above Earthly desire and suffering. The motif of the cube is present elsewhere: Gala is standing on one, and the chessboard is made up of squares.

Gala

On the bottom left of the painting, Dalí painted his wife Gala as

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

looking up at Jesus. Dalí thought of her as the "perfect union of the development of the hypercubic octahedron on the human level of the cube". He used her as a model because "the most noble beings were painted by Velázquez and Zurbarán. eonly pproachesnobility when painting Gala, and nobility can only be inspired by the human being."

Reception

Fiona Macdonald describes the painting as showing a classical pose of Christ superimposed on a mathematical representation of the fourth dimension that is both unseeable and spiritual, considering it to be "arguably the greatest expression of alí'sscientific curiosity". Gary Bolyer assesses it as "one of the most beautiful works of the modern era." Novelist

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...

declared ''Corpus Hypercubus'' to be her favorite painting, and she would spend hours contemplating it at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. She felt a connection between John Galt's defiance over his spiritual ordeal in her novel '' Atlas Shrugged'' and Dalí's portrayal of Christ in the painting.Jeff Britting- Ayn Rand A reproduction of the painting is mentioned in J. G. Ballard's 1969 surrealist novel, '' The Atrocity Exhibition'' and in Robert J. Sawyer's 1998 science fiction novel, ''Factoring Humanity''.

Exhibitions

After being first exhibited in Rome in 1954, ''Corpus Hypercubus'' was acquired in 1955 by the

in New York City, where it was renamed ''Crucifixion''. After nearly 25 years, the painting was loaned to the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

in Paris, the Daimaru Museum in Osaka, and the Tate Gallery in London from December 1979 until June 1980. Throughout the early and mid 1980s ''Crucifixion'' was loaned to museums in Japan, Mexico, and Spain, including the Palau Reial de Pedralbes in Barcelona, the only time the painting has been exhibited in Catalonia, Dalí's home region. It was later loaned to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany and the Pabellón de España at the Universal Exposition of Seville 1992 before being loaned long-term to the

Salvador Dalí Museum The Salvador Dalí Museum is an American art museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, dedicated to the works of Salvador Dalí. Designed by Yann Weymouth, the museum is located on the Downtown St. Petersburg Historic District, downtown St. Petersburg ...

(St. Petersburg, Florida) from 1993 to 1999. In 2000, it was loaned to the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionism, Impressionist paintings, Hudson Riv ...

in Connecticut from January to March and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, as part of the traveling show "Dalí's Optical Illusions". In 2005, ''Corpus Hypercubus'' spent four months at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

in a major retrospective of Dalí's work, and in 2006 it was loaned to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, before returning to New York City.

References

External links

A BBC story about the painting, plus the hypercube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) 1954 paintings Paintings of the Crucifixion of Jesus Mathematical artworks Paintings by Salvador Dalí Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Paintings of Mary Magdalene Oil on canvas paintings