Episode with dog

António Dacosta, the youngest of the "second generation" of Portuguese modern artists, expressed the simultaneous duality of an artist in heed of contemporary history with an isolated temperament by virtue of his Azorean background. The end result was that of the suspension of time in scenes of agonising silence and isolation, like in this Episódio com um cão. Arranged in three distinct steps, which coincide with a set of many other metaphors, this painting presents a surrealist element – water, the natural cause of insularity and a primordial and unconscious element, before the absurd image of the still dog who cohabitates with a hybrid, winged and aggressive creature, culminating in a duel where two swordsmen fight to death, a metaphor which refers to the World War. This is an irresolvable anti-narrative that suggests the excess of History itself.