We Would Not Dare Venture So Far: The Surrealist Pilgrim's Journey.

This essay explores the concept of pilgrimage through the author’s personal journey to view Max Ernst’s surrealist painting *The Robing of the Bride*, housed in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and later at a major surrealism exhibition in Paris. It situates surrealism, as articulated by André Breton in his 1924 “Manifesto of Surrealism,” as a pursuit of an “absolute reality” that transcends rationality and practicality, paralleling the transformative intent of traditional religious pilgrimages like the Camino de Santiago. The author reflects on how surrealist art, with its themes of dreams, prophecy, and sacred vision, challenges conventional boundaries between art, spirituality, and the everyday, suggesting that pilgrimage to art can be an act of self-care, imagination, and transformation rather than mere tourism. The essay also discusses the complex personal and historical relationships embedded in Ernst’s work and the ongoing dialogue between the sacred and the institutionalized in both religion and art.