In this work, André Masson employed the visual synthesis of Analytical Cubism—its limited color range, spatial ambiguities, and dotted brushwork—but charged the naked figure with an explicit eroticism that is distinctly Surrealist. Masson concentrated on the female torso, eliminating the arms and brutally severing the head. The title suggests that this female body is impenetrable, the object of frustrated desire. The original title in French might contain an ironic play on words: the word “armure” sounds like “amour,” meaning love, the French name of the mythological deity Eros. Masson painted The Armor during the period when he first associated with Surrealism and was striving to introduce philosophical ideas to his painting.