Salvador Dali - Divine Comedy
New Salvador Dali Books
Click on image to order the book
Salvador Dali Divine Comedy – 1963
Salvador Dali – Spain (1904 – 1989)
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, the Italian government invites Dali to commemorate the birth of Dante Alighieri. He is Italy’s most famous poet. Dali produces a series of illustrations for a full-text Deluxe edition of Dante’s masterpiece, the Divine Comedy. The Italians do not deem the works appropriate for a Spanish painter to illustrate the work of Italy’s greatest poet. The Italians did not receive the illustrations well. 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, they completed the edition on the 23rd of November 1963.
Salvador Dali, in the course of the Divine Comedy project, created 101 watercolor drawings interpreting the book. Then, artists reproduced these drawings using a wood engraving technique. With this technique, wood engravers carved 3500 woodblocks for the prints that make up the book. This process results in 100 woodblocks in the French edition. Two different editors publish the French edition. Therefore, they produce 4765 books in French and 3188 in Italian. Later, in 1974, they also publish a German edition with a stated size of 1000.
Background
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. The artist created these works using the technique of wood engraving, carving a total of 3,500 blocks of wood, with approximately 35 separate blocks per image. Dali himself thought this suite to be one of the most important of his career, and many today consider it to be his most incredible and notable work. Here are two links 1 and 2 for information about the Divine Comedy.
Background
Each volume includes a title page, a table of contents, and a justification page. All are contained in a cardboard slipcase with matching inner boards. Salvador Dali’s Divine Comedy woodblocks are part of a Canto or book chapter. Each canto is about 8 pages long. Each sheet measures approximately 13″ x 10 1/3 .″ The image size is 7 1/4″ x 9 1/2″. Click on the link for more information about the various Salvador Dali Divine Comedy books.
I buy only complete sets of the Salvador Dali Divine Comedy. I split the set and sell the individual illustrations, if the book covers are in poor condition. Whether a woodblock is unsigned or plate signed varies between books and is random. The pricing starts at $60.00 for unsigned woodblocks. If the woodblock is signed it is $100 more. Each Salvador Dali Divine Comedy illustration comes with a certificate of authenticity for the entire set. When you purchase, I include the entire Canto (text, cover page, and illustration, as available). The availability of unsigned and plate-signed illustrations changes regularly, so please request availability and condition reports for the works you are interested in.
The German Edition:
The German Edition differs in that all of the woodblocks are block signed. They contain no text. There is just the woodblock prints mounted on an Arches backing paper. This is covered with another piece of Arches paper with a cutout for the woodblock image. For more information about the German edition of the Dali Divine Comedy, see the separate page on the German edition.
Decompositions are available with some of the sets. Click on this link Salvador Dali Divine Comedy Decompositions for more information.
For additional background information click on this link for more information.
E-mail for Price and condition report.
