Well, Ayn Rand said, I think, that this was her favorite painting. It is in what she called the "conceptual style," achieving a hyper-clarity beyond realism. The painting by Dali in 1954, re-titled, "The Crucifixion," when it was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was one Ayn Rand is said to have stood contemplating for hours. She said, I believe, that the beautiful male figure reminded her of John Galt, and made the point, often made, that this Christ has no wounds, no blood; his crucifixion, his torture, is spiritual, of the soul. Even more, I think, she may have been attracted to the figure of Mary Magdalene, kneeling before the cross, in a posture of reverence to the ideal man, the hero. Ayn Rand conceived of the proper relationship between man and woman, in the romantic-sexual context only, as the woman's hero worship of the man--her response to his creative strength. Naturally, a woman can have the same creative strength as a man, be as heroic, but in the romantic-sexual context the role of her strength is to respond to the very highest in a man and to reward it by surrendering herself, making an exception for a hero. Or so, I gather, was Ayn Rand's position on this.

As for Ayn Rand's use of Christian symbolism, well, we have to keep in mind she was a Nineteenth Century Russian philosopher (and novelist). She certainly was not unaware of the role of the Church as the only defender of the intellect and scholarship through the centuries of the Dark Ages and early Middle Ages. And, of course, that the greatest Western philosopher after Aristotle was Thomas Aquinas, the transmission belt for Aristotle into Europe in modern times.

But more than that, I think, anyone brought up on the Christian tradition as a child has to retain a powerful feeling associating Jesus with goodness and moral perfection and consummate moral courage... Almost all of the great inspirational symbols in our culture derive from or are associated with Christianity: light, rising, the march forward of the right, vengeance against evil, deliverance, the sky, the child, redemption, innocent nudity, sunrise, mountains and high places...it just goes on and on. A novelist who wishes to tune into our deepest implicit feelings hardly can avoid a great deal of Christian symbolism. Having said all this, I have made no special study of Christian symbolism in Ayn Rand's novels. She also is notable for creating a great many symbols, a great deal of imagery of inspiration, that begins to give us alternatives to Christian symbols.