OIL PAINTING: Metamorphosis Of Narcissus, 1937
For Metamorphosis Of Narcissus , Dali was clearly inspired by a very late 16th Century painting called Narcissus attributed to Caravaggio. Caravaggio's painting provides a perfect mirror image of Narcissus reflected in the water with the shoreline demarcating the subject and his reflection. Notably, the point of rotation in
Caravaggio's painting is the highlighted knee at the centre of his painting. It is this knee, in form, shape and angle that Dali transports into his own rendition of Narcissus and the adjacent hand.