Spitting Christ. On the Use of Christian Iconography in Salvador Dalì’s Parfois je crache par plaisir sur le portrait de ma mère (1929)

Abstract

Insulting priests, stealing crucifixes and stoups from churches, publishing an open letter against the Pope, organising an anti-missionary exhibition, collecting host baking moulds; these are only a few examples of the surrealists’ famous anticlericalism which manifested itself in their artistic and poetic oeuvre over the decades. One of their strategies of subversion was the appropriation of Christian iconography. By inverting and juxtaposing it with incongruent secular and downright profane elements, they aimed at provoking the public and arousing scandal. I will outline this use of Christian iconography while focusing on the analysis of a blasphemous work by Salvador Dali: Parfois je crache par plaisir sur le portrait de ma mere of 1929. Dali’s work can serve as an example, and as a point of departure to show how the members of the young artistic movement used Christian iconography, and to what ends.