Explore the Description of this artwork, The Colossus of Rhodes (Dalí).
The painting shows the Colossus of Rhodes standing on a base of unworked ashlar. The perspective is from below the statue's base, suggesting that the viewer is on a boat approaching the city, and emphasising the statue's extreme height and size. A piece of drapery wraps around the waist of Helios and hangs from his left arm, falling down to touch the ground behind him. Helios raises his right hand to shield his eyes from the sun over which he reigns, giving what the art historian Eric Shanes terms "a vaguely Surrealist touch" to Dalí's work. In the lower right Dalí signed and dated the work "Salvador Dalí / 1954".
ashlar Helios Colossus of Rhodes Eric Shanes Rhodes Salvador Dalí