The artwork titled “Athens Is Burning! The School of Athens and the Fire in the Borgo” is an oil on wood painting created by the eminent artist Salvador Dalí between 1979 and 1980. Characteristic of the Surrealist movement, the artwork spans 32.2 x 43.1 cm and falls within the genre painting category. Presently, the artwork is housed at the Dalí Theatre and Museum in Figueres, Spain.
In the artwork, Dalí offers a complex visual narrative that juxtaposes two very distinct scenes, intertwining disparate historical and artistic elements. The base of the artwork presents a meticulous re-creation of Raphael’s famous “The School of Athens,” which is renowned for its depiction of classical philosophers and scientists in an architectural setting that epitomizes the harmony and grandeur of the Renaissance.
Superimposed upon this classical scene is an array of large, abstract, geometric shapes in bold colors—squares and rectangles—that appear to float in the foreground. Their solid, unadorned forms create a stark contrast to the detailed and dynamically populated background. This superimposition disrupts the spatial and narrative continuity of the underlying scene, generating a tension between the ordered, rational world of the philosophers and the seemingly irrational intrusion of abstract elements.
Dalí’s incongruous combination of these two visual components exemplifies the Surrealist endeavor to reconcile dreams with reality, and the known with the unknown. By integrating geometric abstraction with a high Renaissance composition, Dalí challenges the viewer’s perception and calls into question the nature of knowledge and reality itself.
The title suggests a layered meaning, referencing both the philosophical enlightenment often associated with Athens and the literal notion of a destructive fire—perhaps an allegory for the turmoil and destruction that can arise from within a seemingly orderly and rational society. Through this work, Dalí invites contemplation on the coexistence of order and chaos, permanence and transience, and the limitations of human understanding.
