Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1 Marquis of Dalí of Púbol (Figueras, May 11, 1904-ibid, January 23, 1989) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, engraver, set designer and writer of the 20th century. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of surrealism.

Salvador Dalí is known for his striking and dreamlike surreal images. His painting skills are often attributed to the influence and admiration of Renaissance art. He was also an expert draftsman.2​3​ Dalí's plastic resources also addressed cinema, sculpture and photography, which led him to numerous collaborations with other audiovisual artists. He had the ability to hone a genuinely personal and palpable style at first contact, which was actually very eclectic and “drawn” from other people's innovations. One of his most famous paintings is The Persistence of Memory (also known as The Soft Clocks), made in 1931.

As an extremely imaginative artist, he manifested a notable tendency toward narcissism and megalomania, the goal of which was to attract public attention. This behavior irritated those who appreciated his art and justified his critics, who rejected his eccentric behavior as a publicity claim that was occasionally more striking than his artistic production.4 Dalí attributed his "love for everything that is golden and excessive, his passion for luxury and his love for oriental fashion" to a self-proclaimed "Arabian lineage",5​ that traced its roots to the times of Arab domination of the Iberian Peninsula.