Elijah and the Chariot from Our Historical Heritage

During the 1940s surrealist painter Salvador Dali moved to the United States, where he lived for eight years. During this period he began to explore religious and scientific themes that would continually reappear in his work for the rest of his extensive career. Our Historical Heritage is a series from the early 1970s consisting of 11 etchings that focus on events and historic figures portrayed in the Old Testament. In Elijah and the Chariot, Dali has interpreted the biblical scene in which the prophet Elijah ascends into heaven on a chariot of fire. In this etching, Dali has produced turbulent lines near the horse's legs and on the chariot's wheel to convey force and movement. Swaths of bright red-orange emanate from the horse's mane and engulf the figure as they soar toward the sun.