He was derided by the Surrealists, Andre Breton stated that Dali disappeared in 1935 and was replaced by a society portrait painter who had returned to the Catholic Church and the 'artistic ideal of the Renaissance'. Dali meanwhile was claiming to be an agnostic and a Roman Catholic, the bizarre dualist nature to the fore again.

There was a lot of crucifixion imagery in Dali's work around this time; Lapis-lazuli Corpuscular Assumption and the Christ of Saint John on the Cross being two of the most well known.

What also came to the fore during this period was Dali's interest in science and maths. He lectured throughout the year on nuclear mysticism and the “return to spiritual classicism movement” and announced his intention to depict the crucifixion of Christ using classical techniques but also the motif of the cube.

The cross and crucifixion fused with the tesseract(hypercube)can be seen in other works of Dali around this time, such as; Nuclear Cross, Angelic Crucifixion. The use of the hypercube is seen a symbol with parallels to Jesus Christ.

The three dimensional representation of is similar to the way Jesus is a three dimensional human form of God.

The word Corpus in the paintings title can refer to the body of Christ, but also to geometric figures which reinforces the link Dali was making between religion and his interest in maths a science.

Elements which seem like opposing figures brought together, much like seeing yourself as an agnostic and a Roman Catholic. Dali may have alienated the Surrealists but his duality still incorporated elements of that movement within his juxtapositions.