This composition and another canvas, entitled Palladio's Corridor of Dramatic Surprise, were painted in Paris, rue de l'Universite, after Dalí and Gala had spent a long sojourn in Italy, particularly in the region of Vicenza, where the painter could see the palaces, the villas, the Olympic Theater of Vicenza, and the other buildings in the vicinity designed by the Italian genius Andrea di Pietro, called Palladio, the most important architect of the sixteenth century. One may read the following comment on these pictures in the catalogue of the Dalí exhibition in 1970 at the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum: "In these paintings, named for the Italian architect Palladio, the mannerist and baroque influences are obvious: mannerism in the figures with elongated shapes, baroque in the postures, the movements, the light treated in the style of Magnasco. The proportions of the trompe l'oeil architectural scenery of the Olympic Theater at Vicenza have been adopted by Dalí. For the scenery he has su
