Salvador Dali (1904-1989) - La Divina Comedia- El Infierno Canto 32 “Los Traidores a su patria”

SALVADOR DALÍ (1904–1989)

THE DIVINE COMEDY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI

Luxurious edition — Black-and-white etchings on silk — Paris, 1959–1964

Artist: Salvador Dalí (Figueres, 1904–1989)
Work: The Divine Comedy, illustrations for Dante Alighieri's work.
Technique: Engraved intaglio on black ink on natural silk.
Measurements: 31.5 × 25 cm.
Edition: Joseph Forêt and Éditions d’Art Les Heures Claires.
Place of creation: Paris, France.
Silk suite engraver: Cécile Reims.
Documented special print run: 33 suites of 100 prints on silk.

Description

Exceptional print by Salvador Dalí belonging to his famous interpretation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, one of the most important artistic-illustrative and bibliophilic projects of the 20th century.

The project arose from a commission by the Italian Government to commemorate the seventh centenary of Dante’s birth. Dalí created an extraordinary cycle of 100 watercolors, corresponding to the 100 cantos of the poem, reinterpreting Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise through his unmistakable surrealist universe.

The French edition was developed in Paris by Joseph Forêt and Éditions d’Art Les Heures Claires, between 1959 and 1963, with an elaborate graphic production that required preparing approximately 3,500 woodcut matrices for the color prints.

The black-and-white impressions on silk belong to a specially refined and limited modality of this editorial project. They were produced using intaglio engraving methods, preserving the intensity of the drawing, the delicacy of the contours, and Dalí’s extraordinary imagination.

A historical catalog of the luxury edition documents the production of 33 suites on silk, executed by the French engraver Cécile Reims. These prints constitute a differentiated modality of the general edition printed on paper.

The use of natural silk gives these compositions a unique texture and makes the prints especially interesting for collectors of Dalí’s graphic work and for the great bibliophilic editions of the 20th century.

Bibliographic references and catalogs raisonnés

1. Ralf Michler and Lutz W. Löpsinger
Salvador Dalí: Catalogue Raisonné of Prints, Volume II — Lithographs and Wood Engravings, 1956–1980. Prestel, Munich, 1995.
References no. 1039–1138.

2. Albert Field
The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí. The Salvador Dalí Archives, New York, 1996.
Pages 189–200.

Both publications document the graphic cycle of The Divine Comedy, corresponding to the compositions depicted in the silk prints.

Importance of the edition

The luxurious silk edition stands as one of the most singular testimonies of the ambitious collaboration between Salvador Dalí and the great French workshops of printmaking and artistic publishing.

Its special printing technique, its small editorial context, and the historical importance of the cycle make these works excellent examples of 20th-century surrealist graphic art and bibliophilic publishing.