Salvador Dali, The Minotaur from Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, 1963, Woodblock Print

Description

Salvador Dalí

Figueras 1904 - 1989

The Monotaur (Inferno#12)

Color woodcut

Hand-signed in red lower right

Inscribed "E.A." at the … more Salvador Dalí

Figueras 1904 - 1989

The Monotaur (Inferno#12)

Color woodcut

Hand-signed in red lower right

Inscribed "E.A." at the bottom left. (épreuve d'artiste)

Sheet size: 33 x 26 cm
Frame: 46 x 37 cm

Condition, very good, slightly browned in the picture section



Authenticity is guaranteed in writing.


The Salvador Dali Divine Comedy is a poem by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). It illustrates the journey from Inferno to Purgatory to Paradise. Between 1951 and 1960, Dali was invited by the Italian government to commemorate the birth of Dante Alighieri. He is Italy's most famous poet. Dali produced a series of illustrations for a full-text Deluxe edition of Dante's masterpiece, the Divine Comedy. The works were not deemed appropriate for a Spanish painter to illustrate the work of Italy’s greatest poet. The illustrations were not well received by the Italians. And the project was dropped in Italy. However Dali and French publisher Joseph Foret continued to pursue the publication of the Divine Comedy by giving the project to Les Heures Claires, a French editing and publishing company. Finally, after 55 months of hard work the edition was completed on the 23rd of November 1963.
Salvador Dali, in the course of the Divine Comedy project, created 101 watercolor drawings interpreting the book. These drawings are then reproduced using a wood engraving technique. with this technique, wood engravers carved 3500 woodblocks for the prints that make up the book. This results in 100 woodblocks in the French edition. Two different editors publish the French edition. Therefore there are 4765 books in French and 3188 in Italian. Later, in 1974, a German edition with a stated size of 1000 is also published.
The suite contains incredible imagery ranging from the grotesque to the sublime, as our artist follows Dante from the deepest circles of Inferno, up the mountain of Purgatory, and into heavenly Paradise. These works have been created by the technique of wood engraving: a total of 3,500 blocks of woods were carved, approximately 35 separate blocks per image. Dali himself thought this suite to be one of the most important of his career and it is considered by many today to be his most incredible and notable work.

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