Salvador Dali used egg-shaped stones in both of these decades and found them to be amongst his favourite surrealist objects that he repeated across a number of paintings. Their symbolist value was easily used and the curved form allowed visual interest within his artworks. Within Allegory of an American Christmas, a crack of the egg is precisely the same shape as the North American continent, symbolising the rising of a new country. Artist Dali was known to have been particularly excited about the idea of a young, new country appearing from western culture, perhaps with the opportunity to avoid the mistakes of older nations such as his own Spain.
He continued the use of the egg within Metamorphosis of Narcissus. The artist would travel, and eventually settle, in the United States. He was drawn to its modern media which gave him the attention that he craved. Any celebrity worth their salt would want to be here now, or so he thought. He was never just an artist, but also a big personality, as outlined by some of the extraordinary quotes that he made across his own lifetime. The US seemed more willing to accept this bold character and saw it entirely as a positive, whilst also embracing his modern art styles as well. Several cities, such as New York, would become the centre for many of these new art movements which popped up a few decades after his arrival and he immediately understood their greater acceptance of new ideas than the more traditional peoples of Europe.
If we deconstruct the composition here, aside from the egg there are also other elements to spot. The egg is very dominant within the painting and Dali would often make the central item huge as here. Aside from that are the bright, warm landscape colours that he used on many occasions and were inspired by the environment in which he grew up in North East Spain. There are also a couple of tall figures on the left hand side, with a series of hills in the far background. All of this detail is purely intended as supporting elements to his main component, and we see this time and time again, such as with Elephants, with those elongated animals being the intended focus.
