Salvador Dalí is who many people think of when they think of the quintessential modern artist. But his career actually had many styles and inspirations, and he was never a modernist. Rather, he was a surrealist, part of the beginnings of a movement that grew out of a post-World War I reaction against the bourgeoisie and materialism. By 1946, when Dalí painted “The Temptation of Saint Anthony,” he had lived through two world wars, had emigrated from his native Catalan province (and Europe), and was both a leading figure and exile in a movement important artistic. In 1946, Dalí found himself in a period of transition between his most famous surrealist style (which was very unique to him, unlike the influences due to his past commitments) and a more reactionary orientation towards science and mathematics which preoccupied his later years. . Given all of these influences, it seems almost fitting that Dalí would turn to a religious subject at a time of confusion or crossroads and paint a subject so completely contrary to one of his expressed beliefs or influences. "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" can be considered one of Dali's last homages to surrealism and at the same time a reaction to the obvious impiety of the Second World War. Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueras, Spain, a town in Catalonia. He attended both a public school and a private Christian school during his childhood, after proving to need a little more discipline than standard teaching methods could provide him, and according to his own accounts (probably biased), he was troubled as a child in a very difficult environment. Freudian way – megalomaniac and “hypersensitive”. Given the flamboyant content of his autobiography, as several scholars have observed, this behavior continued throughout his life, and...... middle of article...... nnica Online . Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Web. April 6, 2010. Web.Bigsby, CWE Dada and Surrealism. London: Meuthuen & Co Ltd, 1972. Print.Butler, Edward Cuthbert. “Saint Anthony.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Flight. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. April 6, 2010. Web. “Dalinian symbolism”. Dali exhibition Montmartre Paris. Np, and Web. April 7, 2010. Getlein, Mark. Living with art. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print. Soby, James Thrall. Salvador Dalí. New York: Arno Press, 1968. Print. “The 1940s: World Events: Selected Events Outside the United States.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman et al. Flight. 5: 1940-1949. Detroit: Gale, 2001. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. April 7. 2010.