EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

I do not believe that this method of constructing a painting was a new idea for Dali because his knowledge of past art would have been as encyclopedic as Picasso's. Besides, other paintings by him demonstrate that he was well aware of art's allegorical meaning. Unlike other artists, though, interested in a more subtle form of poetry, Dali soon went out of his way to dazzle spectators with the visual illusions of art. Here's how the Old Masters did it, he was essentially saying. Though he must have helped some viewers become more familiar with the poetic techniques of the masters, he made no such impression on academics who continue to mis-understand the reasons for Dali's pranks, unaware of their links to past art.