The Madonna of Port Lligat

The Madonna of Port Lligat
Salvador Dalí, 1949
Oil on canvas
48.9 × 37.5 cm, 19¼ × 14.76 in
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Madonna of Port Lligat is the name of three paintings by Salvador Dalí. The first was created in 1949, measuring 49 x 37.5 centimetres (19.3 x 14.8 in), and is now housed in the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dali submitted it to Pope Pius XII for approval, which was granted. Dalí created a second painting in 1950 with the same title and same themes, with various poses and details changed, measuring 144 x 96 centimetres (57.7 x 37.8 in); as of 2008 the 1950 Madonna is exhibited by the Fukuoka City Art Gallery, Japan.

The paintings both depict a seated Madonna (posed by Dalí's wife, Gala) with the infant Christ on her lap. Both figures have rectangular holes cut into their torsos, suggestive of their transcendent status. In the 1950 version Christ has bread at the center of his figure. They are posed in a landscape, with a view of Port Lligat, Catalonia seashore in the background, with various surrealist details, including nails, fish, seashell, and an egg. The 1949 Madonna has a sea urchin; the 1950 Madonna has a rhinoceros and additional figures of angels, also posed by Gala. A poem and book based on The Virgin of Port Lligat by Fray Angelico Chavez, was selected as one of the best books of 1959 by the Catholic Library Association

The painting is referred to in the science-fiction novel Protector, by Larry Niven.

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