Salvador Dali (1904-1989) - La Divina Comedia- El Infierno Canto 33 “Los Traidores a sus amfitriones”

SALVADOR DALÍ (1904–1989)

DANTE ALIGHIERI'S DIVINE COMEDY

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

Artist: Salvador Dalí (Figueres, 1904–1989)
Work: The Divine Comedy, illustrations for the work of Dante Alighieri.
Technique: Copperplate engraving in black ink on natural silk.
Measurements: 31.5 × 25 cm.
Edition: Joseph Forêt and Éditions d’Art Les Heures Claires.
Place of execution: Paris, France.
Engraver for the silk suite: Cécile Reims.
Special documented print run: 33 suites of 100 impressions on silk.

Description

Exceptional print by Salvador Dalí belonging to his renowned interpretation of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, one of the most important art and bibliophilic illustration 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 produced an extraordinary cycle of 100 watercolors, corresponding to the poem’s 100 cantos, 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 production that required the preparation of approximately 3,500 wood-cut matrices for the color plates.

The black-and-white prints on silk belong to a specially refined and limited modality of this editorial project. They were created using copperplate engraving procedures, 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 from the general edition printed on paper.

The use of natural silk gives these compositions a singular texture and makes the prints of particular interest to collectors of Dalí’s graphic work and of the great bibliophilic editions of the 20th century.

Bibliographic references and annotated catalogs

1. Ralf Michler and Lutz W. Löpsinger
Salvador Dalí: Catalogue Raisonné of Prints, Volume II — Lithographs and Wood Engravings, 1956–1980. Prestel, Munich, 1995.
Reference numbers 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 unique testimonies to the ambitious collaboration between Salvador Dalí and the great French workshops of engraving and artistic publishing.

Its distinctive printmaking technique, its limited editorial context, and the historical importance of the cycle make these works excellent examples of Surrealist graphic art and bibliophilic culture of the 20th century.