Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man ( BREAKING L. EGG)

Salvador Dali
1943

Dali cryptically wrote "parachute, paranaissance, protection, cupola, placenta, Catholicism, egg, earthly distortion, biological ellipse. Geography changes its skin in historic germination."

Generally it is thought that: The man emerging out of the egg represents the United States, the blood represents World War II, and the man's hand that is on England, possibly indicates that England is in the hands of the United States. 
William Blake's term for the entire fallen cosmos is the "mundane shell" -- our egg-shaped world of limited perception that is as comfortable as it is inauthentic. 

The parachute, or cloth above and below the egg looks like it was protecting the egg and then was ripped open revealing the egg to woman and child. 

The adult is pointing towards the egg in order to educate the child about the events. The shadow of this child is larger possibly indicating that these events have made the child's life significant at that moment and has allowed the child to have a larger stature in the future. 


The small background figures that flank the global egg are from Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin (left) and what appears to be a swaying skeleton with a landscape based off studies on John the Baptist (right). 

Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin 

The Marriage of the Virgin is part of an altarpiece created for a church at Citta di Castello, Italy and shows the marriage of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. 

Allegory of an American Christmas

Allegory of an American Christmas was painted while Dali and Gala were on the first of what was to become many visits to the US. The country had long intrigued Dali and on this first trip he was greatly impressed with it, especially with the media, who afforded him the attention that he needed and craved. Dali loved the idea of a "new country" and the opportunities he saw there; these feelings are reflected in the painting. 
    Dali used the image of an egg-shaped stone often during the Thirties. As a form that represents a human head, it can be seen in Illumined Pleasures. In the Allegory of an American Christmas, as with the later painting The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, the egg produces the idea of a hatching, or a birth of something new; of a change taking place.

The Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Woman with egg and Arrows 1978

Salvador Dali 1938-1949

Salvador Dali 1949-1961

Salvador Dali 1961-1978

Salvador Dali 1978-1983 

Our Lady of the Dry Tree

Petrus Christus - Our Lady of the Dry Tree

1460 - 15cm x 

Fifteen gilded letter “A”s hang from various branches of the dry tree: the “A” is the first letter of “Ave Maria,” and fifteen is the number of the Mysteries of the Rosary, the prayer in which rosary beads are used to contemplate Christ's life while praying to Mary. Additionally descriptive elements where correlated with certain trees, the dry tree looks very similar to the crown of thorns carried by Christ.

Ezekiel 17:24 "And the trees of the country shall know that, I the Lord have brought down the high tree,  and exalted the low tree: and have dried up the green tree, and have caused the dry tree to flourish." Mary being a childless mother would represent the dry tree.

  

Our Lady of The Oak Tree , parochial church of Meerveldhoven

Stamp used by Our Lady of the Dry Tree 

Guernica

Pablo Picasso - Guernica 11' x 26.5'
1937

Background
Spain 1931
After causing rapid inflation and losing support from the army, the dictator appointed by King Alfonso XIII is forced to resign

July 1936 
General Francisco Franco leads a failed military coup for a Nationalist party, which then leads to Spanish Civil War. Germany and Italy directly supported Franco and sought to test out new military equipment. Russia was the only country in direct support of the Republic. France and America's lack of support is often criticized. 

On a side note, there were a couple thousand American volunteers who fought for the Second Republic called the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Many of the people who volunteered for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were official members of the Communist Party USA or affiliated with other socialist and anarchist organizations. During WWII members of this brigade were considered risks to security by the American government. 

1939 
Francisco Franco is victorious and begins his 36 year long rule. Supporters of the Second Republic are targeted by social status become refugees and placed in concentration camps during the Second World War. Although King Alfonsio XIII supported Franco, Franco never acknowledged it. King Alfonsio never returned to Spain and passed on the right to the thrown to his 4th son. 

Guernica 

Commissioned by Spain's Second Republican government in 1937, the painting is a depiction of the brutal bombing of Guenrica by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War. 

The center is occupied by a horse falling in agony as it had just been run through by a spear or javelin. The large gaping wound in the horse's side is a major focus of the painting. The newspaper print on the horse symbolizes the way Picasso learned of the event. 

According to Picaso the horse represented the people of Guenrica, and the bull represented brutality and darkness. He has also said that the bull is a bull and a horse a horse, and that it was not his intent to give them meaning. 

A dream and lie of Franco - Picasso 1937

The image of a skull within the body of the horse

The mouth of the skull also has resemblances to a bull ramming its head into the body of the horse.

On the ground beneath the horse lays a dead soldier holding a broken sword a symbol of defeat from which a flower grows. On his open palm there is a stigma which is a symbol for martyrdom derived from the stigmata of Christ.

A light bulb blazes in the shape of an evil eye over the suffering horse's head (the bare bulb of the torturer's cell). The Spanish word for light bulb is bombilla.

A frightened female figure, who seems to be witnessing the scenes before her, and appears to have floated into the room through a window. Her arm, also floating in, carries a flame-lit lamp. The flame is positioned very close to the bulb, and is a symbol of hope, clashing with the light bulb.

A woman fleeing 

Dagger shaped tongues enhance the emotion being expressed by the woman and bull. The tail of the bull , perhaps Franco, symbolizes the gaseous flames that consumed the landscape during the war. The child's future is being predicted with a war plane shaped scene depicted in the mother's hands. 

Allegory the nautical wolf and imperious eagle

Leonardo Da Vinci (1515 1516)

Allegory the nautical wolf and imperious eagle - red chalk 

The wolf  would represent a corrupt church navigating a peace loving ship towards the eagle who represents the holy roman emperor. In this case the eagle is a representation of the french king, king Francis I,  and bears a crown decorated with the fleur de lis, which is a common symbol of French heraldry (coats of arms).

This piece could then be a reference to the  Concordat of Bologna agreed upon by Pope Leo X and Francis I in 1516. The agreement allowed the Pope  to collect all the incomes made by the church and provided the king with rights to tithe clerics and appoint archbishops. 


The use of an eagle on a globe would represent the imperial goals of King Francis I who began his reign a year before, in 1515, and brought about the beginning of French exploration in the new world. Da Vinci would have been a fan of the king who was a generous patron of the arts. 

The use of a wolf has negative connotations in terms of catholic religion where symbolically  the church is meant to be protecting its flock of sheep. In this case the wolf  most likely does not represent the pope but the corrupt clergy of church.  

Although the eagle on the globe represents the holy roman emperor - King Francis I never became the holy roman emperor - and the title belonged to Maximilian I beginning in 1519. This could mean Leonardo is referencing the prophesy of the second Charlemagne, in which a french king, contrary to tradition, becomes the holy roman emperor. According the prophesy God would use the king as a instrument to cleanse the church, convert infidels, and gain supremacy over the entire world. 

The Last Supper

The Last Supper 
Leonardi Da Vinci
1495-1498
Appropriately located in the refectory, or eating area,  of the Santa Maria Delle Grazie monastary, in Milan Italy.

Symbolism and Speculations

The holy trinity is depicted by grouping all the apostles in groups of three.

To accentuate the holiness of Christ, he is placed at the vanishing point in the painting and is framed by the window with a circular arc above it similar to that of a halo being placed over his head.

It can be perceived that Judas is blocked from the this holy light coming in from the window as he recoils and is thus shaded in a darker color than the rest of the apostles. He is also holding the bag of silver he was given by the Roman soldiers.

To his right Petrus is holding a knife, a prefigure to him cutting a soldier's ear later on, and which is also pointed towards Bartholomew at the end of the table, perhaps in anticipation of the latter's martyrdom by flaying

Although it is unlikely given the location of the piece, it is also speculated that the person to the left of Christ is in fact Mary Magdalene and not John.

This suggestion is accentuated when looking at the two triangles that are created by Christ's body and the space between the two figures.The upward pointing triangle represents man or the phallus, while a downward facing triangle represents woman. Which was also referred to as the grail in Robert Langdon's The Da Vinci Code. This dynamic is also seen by the clothes they are wearing which are the same color but in reverse.

The last bit of speculation surrounding the painting would be the idea that Da Vinci used his own face for the apostle Thomas. Thomas is also pointing his finger upwards, a gesture which Leonardo's contemporaries viewed as a da Vinci trademark.