Dalí's amazons. The surrealism of the classical female body

Abstract

Amazon representations show powerful female warriors as opposed to the restriction imposed on participation in certain spheres, such as the military, to the male context. However, the "masculinisation" of women to make them worthy enemies of the Greek hero also generated an unexpected result, the increase of desire through sensuality, as demonstrated by Theseus kidnapping Antiope or Achilles falling in love with Penthesilea. For the Greeks, the warrior woman was not only powerful with weapons, but with her beauty, and the combination of both attributes has captivated artists for millennia. The power of this image lies in one particular aspect, sensuality, as demonstrated by modern artists who have not been able to escape the desire to represent the female body according to these canons. In fact, abstract currents such as Surrealism did not escape this image either, where its main exponent, Dalí, decided to dedicate several series of engravings, lithographs and drawings to it. We will analyse the influence and development of the Amazon image through these works to discover how the image of the warrior woman has been transmitted through art since Antiquity. Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was the best-known artist of Surrealism, and his work was essential in extending the 20th-century avant-garde movement that sought to unleash unconscious creative potential through art featuring dreamlike imagery. Drawing on psychoanalytical ideas, Dalí created fantastic creatures and landscapes capable of unsettling and astonishing the viewer, which today are exhibited in major museums such as the Tate, the Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. However, among his lesser-known works are several lithographs, engravings, aquamarines and drawings dedicated to the mythical Amazons, which reflect the influence of Greek religion through the centuries. We will discover that the main concepts associated with the image of the female warrior, i.e. beauty, sensuality, eroticism, etc., that guaranteed the success of this type of representation within the patriarchal society that generated them are still very much present today, as a sign of the necessary change of paradigm that we still have to face in the arts in order to overcome social concepts based on inequality.