5A. Reimagining Visual Framing

The Temptation of St. Anthony Salvador Dali

 

 

I was drawn to The Temptation of St. Anthony by Salvador Dali because I thought the emotion displayed on the horse’s face was so powerful and beautiful, but a bit overlooked in the picture as a whole.  There is so much going on in the image, that it is hard to pick out and really appreciate each figure and specific details.  I reframed this section of the image because I really wanted to focus on the pain in the horse and the overpowering size of her in comparison to Saint Anthony, but also how he is not backing down.  I feel like some of that beauty gets lost in the whole image.

The Rule of Thirds is a very powerful tool, as it tells us where the eye is drawn in a image.  In the original framing the eye is drawn first to the horse’s stomach, second to the far edge of the castle, third to the horse’s knee, and finally to the spot where the yellow and blue sky meet.  These are the four spots we are drawn to according to the Rule of Thirds, and unfortunately they are not very powerful images visually or in telling the story.  In my reframing of the image, we are first drawn to the horse’s right front hoof, second to her other hoof, third to the cross in St. Anthony’s hand, and finally to the horse’s knee.  In contrast to the original image, the rule of thirds is much more powerful as it draws the eyes to the menacing hooves that look as though they are about to crush St. Anthony and then our eyes are drawn to the seemingly small cross held by the small figure, but we see the determination he has to stand up to the temptation.  Affinity is also apparent as we are again finally drawn to the horse’s knee, which again displays the contrast in size between St. Anthony and the threat of temptation represented by the horse.

Depth cues are used within a picture plane to represent a 3 dimensional world.  Dali uses the horizon line to emphasize the size of the horse and other animals and to diminish St. Anthony and the other people, in both framings.  Objectively, the animals seem massive because they are higher than the line, while St. Anthony seems even smaller because most of his body is below the horizon line.  However, subjectively the use of this line also makes St. Anthony look more confident and strong, because he is holding his ground as he reaches his body across the line.

Both framings also show how Dali used color to manipulate space.  By using light colors in the background and dark colors in the foreground, flat space is created.  This allows the audience to focus on the figures and the struggle between instead of searching for depth in the image.  In the original image, there is a lot going on, but by removing the other people and animals in my reframed image, the viewer can really take advantage of the flat space and focus on the struggle between St. Anthony and the horse as a representation of temptation.

I think Dali framed the image the way he did to tell an entire story, so you keep getting pulled in deeper and discovering new things and learning how massive and daunting the “temptation” is, as opposed to zooming in on the enormous horse and didactically telling the audience the struggle he is portraying.