The Metamorphoses of Narcissus in Symbolist and Surrealist Painting: Gustave Moreau and Salvador Dalí

Abstract

The article concentrates on interpreting the Narcissus myth in the oeuvre of Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), a symbolist artist who developed the theme in many paintings and drawings, and in the famous Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937, Tate Modern) by Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), which has proved one of the most inspiring and controversial realisations of the myth. A major topic is the relation between the Narcissus myth of symbolism and surrealism on the one hand, and the story of the Boeotian youth as depicted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses on the other. With regard to the works of Gustave Moreau, the study focuses on a new paradigm, which has not been su.ciently investigated, namely the replacement of the traditional image of Narcissus reflected in the pool with a new concept: the concept of reflection as the hero’s introspection. The analysis of Dalí’s much discussed Metamorphosis of Narcissus, on the other hand, tackles the rarely addressed problem of the classical elements employed in this painting.