Celebration and ambivalence in Lorca’s “Oda a Salvador Dalí”: Apollo and Dionysus, Noucentisme and Cadaqués, and the rose

Abstract

Abstract Lorca’s “Oda a Salvador Dalí” ranges over a variety of themes. It addresses Dalí’s then involvement with styles of painting associated with Cubism and Purism, which in the poem are described in Nietzschean terms as an espousal of the Apollonian and the suppression of the Dionysian. At the same time, the “Oda” does not fully endorse these modes of avant-garde painting and the distinctly Apollonian turn that Lorca sees in them. A certain hesitation and a preference for a more moderate approach—to art, and to life—are communicated via different symbols, principally the village of Cadaqués (with which Dalí was strongly connected) and the rose. The earlier artistic style of Noucentisme with its strong neoclassical tendency is associated with Cadaqués, situated on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, while the location and character of the village itself also exemplify the kind of moderation and balance extolled by the “Oda.” This also applies to the rose, whose rich symbolism encompasses classical beauty and a kind of natural perfection again in accord with the eschewing of the extremes of Apollonianism. As much as Lorca admires Dalí for his striving toward his artistic goals, he is also concerned that those goals imply a kind of coldness and detachment that could eclipse their close personal relationship.