Oil on canvas painting by Salvador Dalí. This painting has a geometric simplicity to it. The landscape is almost bland and devoid of detail -- though a rich orange-brown in color. The demi-tasse in question is an alabaster coffee cup; a perfectly symmetrical cylinder except for its handle, which has a slightly ornate design and from which protrudes a small rod or antenna straight up into the air. Small in diameter -- it's five-meters long.
The demi-tasse hangs suspended in the air a few inches above a cube approximately 3 times the size of the cup. The shadow of the cup is visible on top of the cube, but is indistinct in outline - just a small circular smudge. The side of the cube directly facing the viewer has an almost celtic inlaid circular band and within this is a small globe at the center of which is a face. To the right of the cube hanging suspended is a tomato. Its shadow can also be seen on the cube as an indistinct circle.
In the near background stands a woman looking out to sea. She is robed in red and the shape of her buttocks through the robe identifies the figure as female. She's looking out at an island or rock offshore. The rock is supposedly known as La Rata (The Rat), and can be found off the shore of Cape Creus in Spain -- an area Dalí grew up in. The rock also has the appearance of a face emerging from the water.
I don't know if there is a story here. Surely we could construct one from the symbols at hand, but it would likely lack any true intent on the part of the painter. This seems more an exercise in construction than of theme.
This isn't one of Dalí's disturbing works -- or one fraught with tons of veiled references and allusions -- but it is interesting and nicely put together.