Abstract:

This study aims to examine the reflections of the rose imagery in works of Salvador Dali on two-dimensional and three-dimensional planes and the transitivity established between the works by the imagery. The study was conducted using the qualitative case study methodology. The fears, obsessions and passions of the artist, whose work spans a wide range of artistic disciplines, formed the basis of his work and forged the symbolic figures that are unique to him. The symbol of rose has gained a significant place in the rich symbol world of the artist besides melting watches, crutches, butterflies, drawers and ants. Research has revealed that the rose imagery, which first began to appear as a unique symbol in Dali’s paintings such as The Bleeding Roses and Woman with Head of Roses in the 1930s, became a recurring figure in the artist's work in different techniques and forms in the fifty years that followed. In this context, variations of the rose imagery with similarities and differences across all chronological recurring reflections in Dali’s work was analyzed within the framework of his Surrealist style and his private life. The results of the research showed that the image of the rose was at times a symbol he used to represent her wife’s pain, and used her wife, Gala, as his inspiration source; at other times it was associated with love and sexuality in the series of paintings where he portrayed the complex relationship he had with his father. With an unconventional style that blurred the line between his private life and his life as an artist, Salvador Dali also used the rose, a universal symbol of femininity, beauty, death and the Holy Virgin, in similar ways with its more common meanings, and incorporated it in his surreal sculptures as well as his paintings.

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