Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire is an oil painting produced in 1940 by Spanish painter Salvador Dali.
Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire was one of Salvador Dali’s most effective double image paintings.
On the left of the painting, Salvador Dali painted his wife Gala as she leans on a red velvet tablecloth. Her right hand was touching her face providing support while the left hand was moving towards the object placed on the table nearby. At the center of the painting, the viewer and Gala watches Voltaire’s face as it dissolves into a group of figures. These groups of figures were actually a couple dressed in an old fashioned style of clothing with large black dress having white collars. There figure created an illusion of Voltaire’s head and shoulders but they were merchants standing in a slave market. The face of the merchants was illuminated as the eyes of Voltaire’s head while the rest portions were completed from the pattern of their dress.
The work can be viewed at Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
The outer portion i.e. Voltaire’s head without the hair was formed by the opening of the arch through the ruined wall present in the slave market. In detail, the white collars of these merchants from his upper cheeks and nose while the dark clothes form the shadow of checks and nose. Voltaire’s chin was formed by the white-colored sleeves.
Salvador Dali earlier said that Gala had protected her from the world of slaves through her patient love. It is only Gala that can destroy the image of Voltaire’s head and every possible memory of him from my head. The dimensions of the painting Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire were 47 cm × 66 cm or 18 1⁄2 in × 26 in.