Salvador Dali (1904-1989) - La Divine Comédie de Dante Alighieri - 18 prints on silk

SALVADOR DALÍ

THE DIVINE COMEDY — DANTE ALIGHIERI

Exceptional set of 18 silk engravings — Éditions d’Art Les Heures Claires, Paris, 1959–1963

Artist: Salvador Dalí (Figueres, 1904–1989)
Work: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Publisher: Éditions d’Art Les Heures Claires, Paris
Edition date: 1959–1963
Original technique: color wood engraving based on Salvador Dalí’s original watercolors
Printer / engravers: Raymond Jacquet and Jean Taricco
Support for the pieces in this lot: natural silk
Number of works: 18 prints
Composition: 14 from Hell and 4 from Paradise
Signature: printed / plate signature of Salvador Dalí
Dimensions: variable, approximately 30.5–32.5 × 24.5–26 cm
Bibliographic references:
— Ralf Michler & Lutz W. Löpsinger, Salvador Dalí. Catalogue Raisonné of Prints II: Lithographs and Wood Engravings, 1956–1980, Prestel, 1995, refs. 1039–1138.
— Albert Field, The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, pp. 189–200.

DESCRIPTION

Exceptional set of 18 Salvador Dalí engravings on silk, from the famous cycle created by the artist to illustrate Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, one of the most ambitious graphic and bibliographic projects of his entire career.

Dalí produced a set of 100 watercolors, one for each canto of Dante’s work. To translate the extraordinary chromatic richness of these compositions into the language of printmaking, one of the most complex printing processes undertaken in the 20th century was required.

Under the editorial direction of Joseph Forêt and later Éditions d’Art Les Heures Claires, master printers Raymond Jacquet and Jean Taricco rendered Dalí’s watercolors through wood engraving. To reproduce the numerous color gradations, about 3,500 wood matrices were necessary, averaging roughly 35 matrices or color steps per composition.

The execution process lasted approximately four years, with the French edition completed in 1963.

The usual edition of The Divine Comedy was printed on Rives pur chiffon vélin. Parallelly, various suites and proofs were produced for special and deluxe editions, including rare silk impressions, today considerably less common in the market than standard paper impressions.

The present lot brings together 18 silk impressions, a support that markedly alters the appearance of the images: the weave texture, its luminosity, and the characteristic ink absorption produce a visual effect very different from that obtained on paper.

Other known and institutionally documented silk impressions of The Divine Comedy exist, which places these pieces among the most singular variants related to the edition.

IMPORTANCE OF THE WORK

The Divine Comedy is one of the great milestones of Salvador Dalí’s graphic work.

The project originated from the watercolors the artist created to illustrate Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Dalí developed for them an extraordinarily personal universe in which surrealism, Christian tradition, erotism, metamorphosis, and references to classical painting intertwine.

The technical complexity of the project is exceptional: the 100 original compositions were reproduced through thousands of overlaid wood matrices in successive prints to approach the transparency and richness of the original watercolors.

INVENTORY

HELL

1. Canto XV — Les Margelles du Phlégéton
The sodomites
Approx. 30.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1053

2. Canto XVIII — The Deceivers
Approx. 31.5 × 24.5 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1056

3. Canto XIX — The Simoniacs
Approx. 31.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1057

4. Canto XX — Soothsayers and Diviners
Approx. 31.5 × 24.5 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1058

5. Canto XXII — The Barrators
Approx. 30.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1060

6. Canto XXIII — The Hypocrites’ Punishment
Approx. 31 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1061

7. Canto XXIV — The Thieves’ Punishment
Approx. 31 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1062

8. Canto XXVII — The Liar, the Liar
Approx. 30.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1065

9. Canto XXVIII — Bertrand de Born
The sowers of discord
Approx. 30.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1066
One of the most powerful and recognizable compositions of the cycle, in which Bertrand de Born is shown holding his own severed head.

10. Canto XXX — The Men Who Devour Each Other
Approx. 31.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1068

11. Canto XXXI — The Giants
Approx. 31.5 × 24.5 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1069

12. Canto XXXII — The Traitors to Their Country
Approx. 30.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1070

13. Canto XXXIII — The Traitors to Their Hosts
Approx. 31 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1071

14. Canto XXXIV — Apparition de Dité
The appearance of Lucifer
Approx. 31.5 × 25 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1072

Another fundamental composition of Hell, corresponding to the last canto and Lucifer’s appearance.

PARADISE

15. Canto XXII — L’Ange du septième ciel
The angel of the seventh heaven
Approx. 32 × 26 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1127

16. Canto XXVII — Gloria Patri
Approx. 32.5 × 25.5 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1132

17. Canto XXVIII — Dante and the Angels / Path to God
Approx. 31.5 × 26 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1133

18. Canto XXX — À l’Empyrée
In the Empyrean
Approx. 32 × 26 cm
Michler & Löpsinger 1135

COMMENTS ON THE SUPPORT

The pieces display the small dimensional variations and irregularities typical of a flexible textile support and its preparation and cutting.

These particularities should be regarded as material features of this type of printmaking and not confused with the much more uniform measurements of ordinary copies of The Divine Comedy printed on Rives vélin.

REFERENCES AND DOCUMENTATION

The complete series of The Divine Comedy is cataloged in:

Ralf Michler & Lutz W. Löpsinger
Salvador Dalí: Catalogue Raisonné of Prints II: Lithographs and Wood Engravings, 1956–1980
Prestel, Munich/New York, 1995.
Numbers 1039–1138.

Albert Field
The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí
pp. 189–200.

There are also bibliographic, institutional, and market records that expressly document silk impressions of The Divine Comedy, confirming the existence of special suites executed on this support.

LOT OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO COLLECTORS OF SALVADOR DALÍ GRAPHIC WORK AND OF GREAT 20th-CENTURY BIBLIOPHILIC EDITIONS.