“The Face of War” by Salvador Dali, is a painting created in 1941, which depicts a multiple of what seems to be the same faces.
Dali had spent the years 1936–1939 in Paris, throughout the Spanish Civil War. During the beginning of the Second World War (1940), Dali fled to California with his wife, due to the Fall of France, in which Germany had invaded and captured France. This experience inspired Dali to express the misery of Europe through this painting.
The main focus of this painting is the gigantic face, standing in the middle of nowhere. The interesting aspect of this painting is that there is an infinity of faces inside the biggest face, along with a few snakes surrounding it. Towards the bottom right edge of the painting, we can see traces of a hand. However, the hand seems to be absent of flesh, left with only the bones. The surroundings of this hand, along with the top right corner of the painting, seem to be contaminated or rotted, as the color contrast of the surroundings are much darker than the main background of the painting.
The infinite number of faces are symbolic of the infinite number of people who suffer the tragedy of experiencing war. This is further conveyed by the color choices made by Dali, as the color brown symbolizes loneliness, sadness, and isolation. Shown by the expression of the face, it is noticed that the color choice is relevant, since the face portrays an agonizing expression. The background also adds on to this idea of isolation, as Dali is trying to convey that people feel that they have no one to rely on during war. Although there is a shade of blue near the back, it is an extremely pale shade of blue, which suggests that hope is just as indistinct as this shade of blue. The snakes continuously bother the face, even though it is practically dead. The snakes are symbolic of how attacks are continuous and how human feeling is insignificant when being attacked.
Dali explained that the imprint of the hand was meant to be his own. I think that his hand is imprinted inside the painting to convey to the readers that this painting comes from his concern, rather than to be only inspired by other people. War is a very heavy and serious topic to think about in general, and I believe that Dali acknowledges this by incorporating his own perspective into this work of art.
Ultimately, Dali’s portrayal of the misery of war leaves a strong impact, as it conveys something more than just the outer appearances of people experiencing war.
