The true painter is one who is capable of painting extraordinary scenes in the middle of an empty desert. The true painter is one who is capable of patiently painting a pear in the midst of history's greatest tumults." Salvador Dalí.
The turbulent personality sometimes overshadowed the important work of the painter. Dalí was nonetheless a meticulous and relentless painter, conceiving his canvases at length and executing them with a care he wanted to be close to his classical masters, Raphael or Vermeer. More than any other, the Italian Renaissance was for Dalí a permanent and indispensable reference. If he considered himself the best draftsman of his time, he acknowledged that his drawings "are worth almost nothing" compared to the great masters of the Renaissance. An admirer of Leonardo da Vinci, he long held Raphael in high esteem, proclaiming that he was the only contemporary capable of understanding him.