Salvador Dali (1904-1989) - Minos - La Divina Comedia de Dante Alighieri — Infierno, canto V

SALVADOR DALÍ (1904–1989)

MINOS — MINOS, JUDGE OF HELL

Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy — Inferno, canto V

Date: 1959–1963
Edition: Joseph Foret / Les Heures Claires, Paris.
Technique: Original color woodcut, made from a watercolor by Salvador Dalí.
Support: Japanese paper, according to the information provided, with no visible watermarks or filigrees.
Dimensions: 33 × 26 cm.

Work cataloged:

* Michler & Löpsinger, Salvador Dalí. Catalogue Raisonné of Prints, volume II, reference no. 1043.
* Albert Field, The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, pages 189–200.

Description:

Extraordinary surrealist composition by Salvador Dalí belonging to his monumental graphic interpretation of The Divine Comedy, one of the artist’s most important and widely recognized editorial achievements.

The work illustrates canto V of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, where Minos appears, the legendary infernal judge responsible for examining the souls of the condemned and determining their destiny in the different circles of Hell.

Dalí transforms this mythological figure into a composition of extraordinary originality and expressive force, featuring a character with an extremely stylized anatomy, seated on a geometric pedestal and with limbs elongated to achieve impossible proportions.

The delicate combination of golden, ochre, and greenish tones, together with the use of perspective lines and small human figures in the background, gives the scene an atmosphere of haunting surrealist beauty.

The representation constitutes a magnificent example of Dalí’s artistic universe, where anatomical transformation, elongated forms, and geometry combine with the symbolism of classical literature.

The work belongs to the monumental editorial project developed between 1959 and 1963, the execution of which required approximately 3,500 woodcut matrices to reproduce the hundred original illustrations by the master.

Copy presented on Japanese paper, with wide margins and irregular natural edges, without visible watermarks, which preserves the chromatic delicacy and richness of detail of this renowned composition.

Conservation status: It shows a warm tone in the paper and slight signs of aging, noticeable in the photographs.

A distinguished graphic work by Salvador Dalí, cataloged and of particular interest to collectors of surrealism, classical mythology, bibliophilia, and major illustrated editions of the 20th century.
Provenance: collection linked to Enrique Sabater