Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain. Dali was a famous Spanish surrealist painter. He traveled to Paris, and he met Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro, who heavily influenced Dali’s painting styles. Dali was skilled in painting, sculpting, drawing, and photography. He grew a large mustache, which became his trademark through out his life. Later on in life, he married a woman named Gala. In 1982, Gala died, and Dali lost his motivation to live; he dehydrated himself to a point of near death. In the end, Dali died in from heart failure when he was 84 years old (died in 1989).

The Painting and the Text

In Dali’s painting of Familia Ruth Moabitidis, Ruth does not belong within her own family, for she is different. Ruth is depicted as the yellow figure, while the other figures in the painting are similar in color except for Ruth. This symbolizes that Ruth does not fit in with her biological family. Therefore, she insists on being part of Naomi’s family and following her to the ends of the earth. The use of blues and grays depicts a sad, gloomy environment, which can represent that Ruth was unhappy with her biological family. Furthermore, Ruth is painted with soft yellows, which foreshadows her success in following God’s will and being an important female foreigner figure in the bible.  The simplicity of the painting, such as the trees and the grass, demonstrates how Ruth does not need much in her life in order to be happy; in fact, she is satisfied with just having Ruth in her life. 

A Different View

Dali’s painting portrays the family of Ruth as impoverished; additionally, he depicts Ruth gathered peacefully with her family going through challenging times. The colors used in Familia Ruth Moabitidis are mainly dark colors, which represents the struggles that Ruth’s family is going through. There is the use of a vertical line to separate the painting into two sections. The section on the left uses more gray and black colors that are dull and opaque, not including the white background; on the other hand, the section on the right uses blue and gray colors that are more bright, lively, and radiant. This demonstrates that at the moment Ruth’s family is struggling (the left half of the painting), but there will be hope in the future (the right half). The hope will be that Ruth will marry Boaz who is a wealthy Israelite that can help Ruth’s family end their hardships. Dali’s painting foreshadows the compensation that Ruth shall receive for following God’s will, which also relates as to why Ruth is painted in yellow. In the end, Ruth would not have been able to help her family pull through during a difficult time without the help of Naomi, for it was Naomi who pushed Ruth to marry Boaz. Furthermore, one gets an explanation as to why Ruth followed Naomi, which was to save her biological family; however, Ruth probably did so unknowingly since it was most likely God controlling the events, so it is fair to say that Ruth really was dedicated to Naomi and considered her as family.

About Me

My name is Sofia Guzman, and I am from Chicago Illinois. I am a part of the class of 2020 at St. Olaf College. I was raised Catholic and still practice my faith to this day, so I had a some background knowledge about the bible when coming into this class. However, now I have had the opportunity to extend my knowledge about the bible in more depth.