Dalí Dixit

“But I shall assume that your picture has resisted all these tests, and still others, like the fascinating one of representing it to yourself in imagination, in the course of a prolonged revery, hanging in a museum next to one of your preferred Raphaels.”

Salvador Dalí, 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, 1948

“I had let my hair grow as long as a girl's,and looking at myself in the mirror I would often adopt the pose and the melancholy look which so fascinated me in Raphael's self-portrait, and whom I should have liked to resemble as much as possible.”

Salvador Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, 1942

“One day it will be discovered that painting was already discovered by Raphael and Vermeer. Therefore, instead of monotonously persisting in theorizing, in an effort to rediscover painting... PAINT!”

Salvador Dalí, Recent Paintings by Salvador Dalí, Bignou Gallery, 1945

“Long live modern art! on condition that it paints like Raphael.”

Salvador Dalí, 50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship, 1948

“Raphael said that in order to make a successful picture one should think about anything else while manipulating the brush. His studios abounded in beautiful people intertwined, singers, musicians, poets who were reciting their verses. When evening comes, and you step back to look at your canvas, be surprised at what was born of your fingers.”

Salvador Dalí, Louis Pauwels, Les passions selon Dalí, 1968

“the geniuses of the Renaissance - Raphael, Leonardo and Michel Angelo, the only ones who perhaps have touched God with their fingertips - had no other ambitions with their cosmogonies than to expand the world in the image of heaven.”

Salvador Dalí, Hidden Faces, 1944

“Gala is sitting in the prow of her boat which is painted Neapolitan yellow. This is the day I think she is more beautiful than at any time in my life. On the beach, the fishermen look at the flaming countryside. I kneel down once more to thank God that Gala is as beautiful a creature as those of Raphael.”

Salvador Dalí, Journal d’un genie, 1964

“It is not true that I regard myself, as has been said, as the best painter in the world. Painting is for me only one of the most imperfect manifestations of my intelligence. I am a bad painter. If I compare my canvases with those of the Renaissance, with those of Raphael, for example, I realize the total disaster of all my work. But that does not prevent me, thanks to my style, from being one of the best contemporary artists.”

S.a., Salvador Dalí, Une interview exceptionnelle Dalí se confesse, Arts, n. 674, Paris, 11/06/1958

“I need the localism of Portlligat just as Raphael needed the landscape of Urbino, to arrive at the universal by the path of what is particular.”

Salvador Dalí, José María Massip, «Dalí, hoy», Destino, 1/04/1950.

“A Raphael sought harmony; a surrealist tries to disturb. His work is not directed at our reason; it aims straight at our subconscious. If you wince, it is proof positive that he has scored a direct hit on your libido.”

Salvador Dalí, Philippe Halsman, Dalí’s Mustache,1954