Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMENECH (Figueres, Girona, 1904–1989).
“Combat des cavaliers.” From the series Life Is a Dream. c, 1975.
Aquatint print on Richard de Bas paper. Artist’s proof.
Signed and inscribed. In pencil.
Measurements: 33 x 53 cm; 56 x 73 cm (paper).
This print is part of a series of twelve illustrations created by Salvador Dalí based on Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s famous play *Life Is a Dream*, one of the seminal texts of the Spanish Golden Age. In this project, Dalí approaches Calderón’s philosophical drama from his own unique surrealist universe, exploring themes such as illusion, dreams, and the fragility of reality—recurring elements throughout his artistic output.
The composition is structured around a powerful visual contrast between the blue horses, depicted with remarkable detail in the foreground, and the schematic figures in the background, which seem to dissolve into a dreamlike and undefined space. This interplay of opposites between the precise and the ambiguous reinforces the sense of unreality, transforming the scene into a sort of mental vision where the boundaries between the real and the imagined blur.
True to his surrealist language, Dalí uses the image as a symbolic stage where Baroque theatricality and the logic of dreams coexist. The horses, with their almost hypnotic presence, function as dynamic elements that introduce movement and energy into the composition, while the figures in the background lend an enigmatic, almost spectral dimension that suggests the illusory nature of existence, in tune with Calderón’s thought.