Madonna of Port Lligat, 1949

Label: Salvador Dalí’s Madonna of Port Lligat is rich with symbolic elements linking the painting to the artist’s personal life, to the history of art, and to contemporaneous events. The painting depicts Gala, Dalí’s wife and muse, as the Virgin Mary set against a landscape recognizable as the bay of Spain’s Port Lligat, where the artist and his wife were living at the time. Dalí employs traditional Christian iconography: the fish as symbol of Christ, the seashells representing pilgrimage or baptism, and the lemons associated with fidelity in love. The inclusion of the shell and egg specifically refers to Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca’s Montefeltro Altarpiece. Dalí’s period of renewed Catholic faith—coupled with his interest in recent scientific advancements, notably atomic energy and particle physics—influenced his choice of subject matter and compositional techniques. Termed “Nuclear Mysticism” by the artist, this style of painting reconciles science and spiritualty. The fragmentation of the figures and architectural elements evokes an atomic explosion, which the artist likens to the physical and spiritual transformation of the Madonna carrying the Christ Child. Exhibition label from "HMA DNA: Collection Highlights," 2016.

Exhibition History: From a Grain of Sand... Marquette Art Collection Builds, Fine Arts Gallery at Marquette University, 05/24/1979 - 07/01/1979 Salvador Dali Retrospective 1920-1980, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 12/18/1979 - 04/14/1980 Dali, Tate Gallery, London, 05/14/1980 - 06/29/1980 Dali - Miro - Picasso, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 09/25/1985 - 12/22/1985 Salvador Dali 1904-1989, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany , 05/13/1989 - 07/23/1989 Salvador Dali 1904-1989, Kunsthaus Zurich, 08/18/1989 - 10/22/1989 Salvador Dali, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark , 10/16/1989 - 03/11/1990 Salvador Dali, Musee de Beaux-Arts de Montreal, 04/27/1990 - 07/29/1990 Dali, Mitsukoshi Museum of Art & Fukuoka Prefectural Museum, Japan, 10/09/1991 - 12/26/1991 Dali I L’Architectura, Fundacio Caixa de Catalunya, Barcelona, 06/27/1996 - 08/27/1996 Dali Monumental, Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 03/23/1998 - 05/24/1998 Dali Monumental, Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo, Brazil, 06/09/1998 - 08/09/1998 Dali Monumental, Museu de Arts da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 08/27/1998 - 10/04/1998 Salvador Dali: A Mythology, Tate Gallery, Liverpool , 10/24/1998 - 01/31/1999 Salvador Dali: A Mythology, Salvador Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL, 03/05/1999 - 05/24/1999 Dali’s Optical Illusions, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, 04/20/2000 - 06/25/2000 Dali’s Optical Illusions, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, 07/23/2000 - 10/01/2000 Salvador Dali, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy, 09/12/2004 - 01/16/2005 Salvador Dali, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 02/06/2005 - 05/15/2005 Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: The Wound of Time, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, 11/01/2006 - 04/07/2007 Dali Dali Featuring Francesco Vezzoli, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 09/20/2009 - 01/17/2010 Dali: The Late Work, High Museum of Art, 07/15/2010 - 01/21/2011 The Sacred Made Real, Haggerty Museum of Art, 06/22/2011 - 05/20/2012 Images of the Virgin Mary, Haggerty Museum of Art, 01/16/2013 - 07/28/2013 Dali Up Close, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnepeg, Canada, 09/27/2014 - 02/22/2015 What is Hispanic? | ¿Qué es hispánico?, Haggerty Museum of Art, 08/19/2015 - 12/20/2015 HMA DNA: Collection Highlights, Haggerty Museum of Art, 06/09/2016 - 01/14/2018 Gala Salvador Dali: A Room of One's Own in Pubol, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, 07/05/2018 - 10/14/2018 Art Asks - You Answer, Haggerty Museum of Art, 01/14/2022 - 05/22/2022 The Big 4-0, Vol. 2: New Views of the Collection, Haggerty Museum of Art, 01/17/2025 - 05/24/2025

Publication History: G.A. Cevasco and D. Steve Rahmas, Salvador Dali: Master of Surrealism and Modern Art (New York: SamHar Press, 1971), 15. A. Reynolds Morse et al., A Guide to Works By Salvador Dali In Public Museum Collections (Cleveland: Norber Lithograph Company, 1974), 23. Salvador Dali (London: Tate Gallery,1980), 127. Salvador Dali (Paris: Centre Georges Pompidu, 1980), 375. Dawn Ades, Dali and Surrealism (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), 187. 400 Obras de 1914 a 1983 Salvador Dali (Barcelona: Ministerio de Cultura, 1983), 380. Dawn Ades, Dali (Milan: Bompiani, 2004), 347-348. Lucia Garcia de Caroi, Salvador Dali (Salmanca: Graphicas Lope, 2005), 131. Michael R. Taylor, The Dali Renaissance: New Perspectives on His Life and Art after 1940 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2005), 8. Salvador Dali: La Gare De Perpignan- Pop, Op, Yes-Yes, Pompier (Ostildern: Hatje Cantz Verkag, 2006), 85. Eric Shanes, The Life and Masterworks of Savador Dali (New York: Parkstone Press International, 2010), 255. Dali, Un Artista Un Genio (Milan: Skira, 2012), 171, 173. Estrella de Diego, Gala Salvador Dalí: A Room of One’s Own at Púbol (Barcelona: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, 2018), 183. Isidro Faine et al., Dali Atomico (Obra Social "la Caixa, 2018).