Meditative Rose by Salvador Dali Theme Analysis Salvador Dali, a famous Hispanic surrealist artist, painted Meditative Rose

in 1958. The painting itself is quite simple, yet abstract. The background of the painting is an empty, golden-shaded field that seems to be almost bare of any resources. Oddly enough, right in the foreground of the painting, in the sky, is a giant rose. No stem, nor leaves, merely the flower itself. At first glance, this painting seems meaningless and void of any sort of deeper meaning, yet an abstract mind can make this abstract art make sense. Symbolically, roses are typically associated with one thing: love. In love stories and books and even in real life, the act of giving roses to a girl is a form of affection. The flower itself takes up a large portion of the painting, which seems odd at first, but has a deep meaning. Salvador Dali had a lover at the time and thought that painting a landscape with small flowers wouldnt quite show the amount of love he felt for someone, love being symbolized by roses, thus he created a boldly placed rose to represent this love. Other than the rose, the background of this painting provides two major symbols: the bare field and the absence of the sun. As lame as it sounds, these are symbolic when it comes to the overall theme of love. The rose being in a barren, boring field symbolizes that you can find love anywhere, even in the most boring of places. Even though this field has a golden sunset tint to it, there is no sun in sight. Replacing the sun is the rose, and it shows that love can cast a positive, beautiful light on things that feel empty, and in essence completes those love shines on. What once was a simple, surreal picture can be seen in a whole new light; love comes in many ways, shapes and forms, some more oddly formed than others, yet all are meaningful.