The Vandal

CHRIST OF SAINT JOHN of the Cross is the most famous of Dalí’s controversial postwar paintings. In the 1940s, the artist abandoned the surrealist work for which he was known and touted instead a return to the classical techniques and craftsmanship of the Renaissance. This transformation included a conversion to Catholicism and public embrace of Franco’s regime in Spain — a double insult to Dalí’s ferociously anticlerical, antifascist colleagues in the surrealist movement, who promptly denounced their former friend as the dictator’s stooge. For this reason, Dalí’s later work, and his religious paintings in particular, have rarely commanded serious critical attention.