Santiago El Grande

“Santiago El Grande” is a repost from an earlier version of Assorted Nonsense.

Years ago a friend took me to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. When I first laid eyes on Santiago El Grande by Salvadore Dali I was blown away. It’s enormous, for one thing, and when I saw it up close, I could not get over the—at times—almost photorealistic detail Dali managed to achieve. It was the first painting of its calibre I had ever seen. It may be the only painting of its calibre it’s possible to see. 

Shortly afterward I travelled to Europe and visited the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay, and several galleries in Florence, Italy, and no painting in any of those places impressed me as much as Santiago El Grande. I bought a print of it. It hangs in my office, but the print is so small compared to the original that you can’t really get a sense of the painting’s majesty, or intricate detail. 

Recently I found myself in Fredericton again on a business trip. When I learned I would be going to Fredericton I knew that the one thing I had to do was see Santiago El Grande again. I hoped I would have time, and that the gallery wouldn’t be too far from where I was staying. Turned out I was staying  at the Beaverbrook Hotel—right next door to the gallery—so as soon as I checked in and deposited my bags in my room I rushed over. 

I had forgotten the layout of the gallery, that you can see Santiago El Grande as soon as you step inside. There was only an hour left until the gallery closed but I paid my eight bucks and went in. I spent about ten minutes staring at Santiago El Grande. As I approached the painting I overheard the final moment of a conversation another patron was having with a staff member about Dali. 

Once I finished admiring the painting on my own I approached the staff member and asked if he could tell me a bit more about it. “You’ll be sorry you asked,” he told me. 

But I wasn’t at all sorry. It took him about fifteen minutes, and afterward I appreciated the painting even more. He pointed out many details that I had overlooked, such as the partial transparency of some of the figures, and how certain elements were foreshortened to give a three dimensional aspect if viewed from the right angle. He explained some of the history of the painting, how it came to be in Fredericton after the Catholic Church of Spain refused Dali’s offer of the painting. They weren’t refusing the painting so much as they were refusing the painter himself. Afterward Dali claimed he had a dream that told him the painting belonged in a relatively obscure art gallery in Canada, which is how it wound up in the Beaverbrook. 

Don’t pass through Fredericton without treating yourself to a glimpse of this magnificent work of art. If I ever manage to cobble together some manner of art that’s even a thousandth as accomplished in my lifetime, I’ll be grateful.