Unique Transformation in a Dali Painting of the Female Life Cycle

This brief article examines a painting by the extraordinarily gifted artist Salvador Dali, a prominent exponent of the art termed surrealism, based on the Freudian concepts of subconscious, automatism, and free association. Particular attention is drawn in the painting to the birth canal, symbolized by an open-mouthed fish in the process of “giving birth” to a half-born tiger who is appearing to assault a sleeping female lying on the beach; as well as to a pomegranate representing the female ova.