Sunday Dalí: Celestial Ride, 1957. Oil on canvas, 185 x 83 cm.

This painting represents the “Avida Dollars” side of Dalí as it is sort of a pop-surrealist painting intended to sell. Specifically it was intended to sell to Americans. Nonetheless, Dalí’s attention to details and his sense of humor show through.

Paul Chimera writes:

Dali loved paradox and visual puns, as well as making the impossible somehow seem real. The latter feat was pulled off brilliantly, thanks to the photographic realism of Dali’s technique. Many Dali aficionados are doubtlessly familiar with his various paintings depicting elephants on impossibly skinny, skyscraper-tall legs. That mind-blowing motif reappears here, this time with a rhino as the multi-ton beast — a symbol of virility (ground rhino horns are said to be an aphrodisiac) — on top of which a faceless virgin poses, holding a crutch — a frequent accoutrement in Dali’s arsenal of symbols. Crutches sometimes represented the impotence Dali claimed he experienced during much of his adult life.

Read the rest of his fantastic analysis on his blog to see how Dalí marketed this painting to American art collectors.