We usher in October with insect-themed art. Consider this close-in crop of an engraving:
For 10 points, who is the artist?
Points will be awarded to the first person to register a correct guess in the comments. The cumulative points winner for the month of October will win their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my insect photography galleries, or 2) a guest post here on Myrmecos.
Good luck!
ps- extra points for cogent discussion on the symbolism of the insects
Dali
It’s Salvador Dali.
Might Dali perhaps have known the tradition that flies attempted to lessen the sufferings of Christ, by imitating nail heads, and preventing further nails from being driven in? He certainly knew well another story of religious flies, concerning St Narcissus, whose tomb in the Catalan town of Gerona was being torn open by French invaders in 1285, when a swarm of flies flew out and drove the invaders away.
For Dali, “ants point to death, decay, and immense sexual desire”. According to two articles on Wikipedia, one citing modernmastersgallery.com as the source.
ahm back on teh interwebz an procrastinatin like a mofo wut
It’s by Dali, as Warren and Julie said. I might add that the engraving is taken from Illustre Casanova suite 1967 (and can be bought for 8000$ on Ebay!).
Salvador Dali
It´s Salvador Dalí. He painted at least 80 (may be more) oils, drawings or ceramics with ants. I prepared an entry in my blog dealing with this, “The mutant ants of Salvador Dalí”:
http://historiasdehormigas.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/las-hormigas-mutantes-de-salvador-dali.html
That’s a fascinating piece, José, I might have to use it for a class. Thanks for sharing!
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