Hellenistic Art: Venus de Milo

Aphrodite of Milo in a work of Salvador Dali, The Hallucinogenic Torreador, with multiple hidden images. It primarily focuses on the torreador (bull-fighter), whose face is hidden within the repeated representation of the Venus de Milo. The upper portion of the painting contains the bull-fighter's arena, again surrounded by multiple images of the goddess. There is also a hidden image of the bull in the lower left quadrant of the painting (drinking water from a pool), and an image of a boy (possibly a self-portrait as a child, as his clothing represents the approximate time period of his boyhood). (Information from http://www.eyeconart.net/history/surrealism.htm )

That which Grecian art created,
Let the Frank, with joy elated,
Bear to Seine's triumphant strand,
And in his museums glorious
Show the trophies all-victorious
To his wondering fatherland.

They to him are silent ever,
Into life's fresh circle never
From their pedestals come down.
He alone e'er holds the Muses
Through whose breast their power diffuses,—
To the Vandal they're but stone!
Friedrich Schiller, THE ANTIQUES AT PARIS.