Enkidu Meets Salvador Dali - Tuna Fishing (Homage to Meissonier) (1967)
Description
This painting, entitled Tuna Fishing (Homage
to Meissonier), was created by Salvador Dali in 1967. This painting is
considered one of Dali's last masterpieces. This painting was created by
Salvador Dali as a tribute to Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, a 19th century
French painter known for his skills in painting battle scenes. The painting
Tuna Fishing depicts a bloody struggle between humans and giant fish, in the
painting it is symbolized by a knife stabbed into a large tuna fish, then the
sea around it begins to turn blood red. This battle scene is described by Dali
as the personification of a finite realm, from here it is seen that Salvador
Dali is deeply influenced by the thoughts of a Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin. Chardin was a prominent French philosopher, esotericist, and
theologian, whose ideas on the Omega Point laid the foundation for Dali's
Catholic esotericism. The Omega Point is the subject of a belief that
everything in the universe revolves towards a point of ultimate unification.
Dali tries to describe this understanding of the 'omega point' through his
painting Tuna Fishing.