Editing Salvador Dalí (section)

=== Food ===
Food and eating have a central place in Dalí's thoughts and work. He associated food with beauty and sex and was obsessed with the image of the female [[praying mantis]] eating her mate after copulation.<ref>Gibson, Ian (1997), p. 312</ref> Bread was a recurring image in Dalí's art, from his early work ''[[The Basket of Bread]]'' to later public performances such as in 1958 when he gave a lecture in Paris using a 12-meter-long [[baguette]] an illustrative prop.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/breaking-dalinian-bread-on-consuming-the-anthropomorphic-performative-ferocious-and-eucharistic-loaves-of-salvador-dali/|title=Breaking Dalinian Bread|last=Pine|first=Julia|date=1 January 2010|website=InVisible Culture|access-date=3 April 2020|archive-date=30 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730163221/https://ivc.lib.rochester.edu/breaking-dalinian-bread-on-consuming-the-anthropomorphic-performative-ferocious-and-eucharistic-loaves-of-salvador-dali/|url-status=live}}</ref> He saw bread as "the elementary basis of continuity" and "sacred subsistence".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dalí|first=Salvador|title=The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí|publisher=Dover Publications|year=1993|isbn=978-0-486-27454-6|location=New York|page=306}}</ref>

The egg is another common Dalínian image. He connects the egg to the prenatal and intrauterine, thus using it to symbolize hope and love.<ref name="symb">{{cite web|url=http://www.countyhallgallery.com/education/dali_symbols.htm|title=Salvador Dalí's symbolism|work=County Hall Gallery|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061202083808/http://www.countyhallgallery.com/education/dali_symbols.htm|archive-date=2 December 2006|access-date=28 July 2006}}</ref> It appears in ''[[The Great Masturbator]]'', ''[[Metamorphosis of Narcissus|The Metamorphosis of Narcissus]]'' and many other works. There are also giant sculptures of eggs in various locations at Dalí's house in [[Portlligat]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stone|first1=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v8ehi--t7EYC&q=portlligat+house+dali+eggs&pg=PA284|title=Frommer's Barcelona|date=7 May 2007|publisher=Wiley Publishing Inc.|isbn=978-0-470-09692-5|edition=2nd|page=284|access-date=23 March 2017|archive-date=10 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210185332/https://books.google.com/books?id=v8ehi--t7EYC&q=portlligat+house+dali+eggs&pg=PA284|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as at the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres.

The radial symmetry of the sea urchin intrigued Dalí. He had enjoyed eating them with his father at Cadaqués and, along with other foods, they became a recurring theme in his work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/dali/salvador/food.html|title=Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire|work=ngv.vic.gov.au|access-date=14 February 2015|archive-date=24 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324231014/http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/dali/salvador/food.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The famous "melting watches" that appear in ''The Persistence of Memory'' suggest [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s theory that time is relative and not fixed.<ref name="Conquete" /> Dalí later claimed that the idea for clocks functioning symbolically in this way came to him when he was contemplating [[Camembert]] cheese.<ref>Salvador Dalí, ''The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí'' (New York: Dial Press, 1942), p. 317.</ref>