Salvador Dali (1904 - 1989), "Divine Comedy: Purgatory - Song XXX."

Color woodcut on paper, 25 x 17.5 cm, unsigned.

Salvador Dali made a set of illustrations for the anniversary edition of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of its author's birth, commissioned by the Libreria dello Stato in Roma library in the 1950s. He painted 100 illustrations in watercolor, one preliminary and 33 in the body of each part of the poem: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The resulting works are considered one of the artist's most outstanding achievements. Despite the withdrawal of the Italians from the contract (who eventually entrusted their compatriot with the commission), Dali completed the monumental work. The watercolors were exhibited in Rome and Paris - the rights to them were bought by Les Heures Claires in 1959. They were then transferred into the woodcut technique by the painter and two excellent woodcutters (Raymond Jacquet and Jean Taricco). To adapt them to color printing, special woodcut blocks were made from boxwood in quantities of 30 to 40 for each illustration. They were finally published in France, on exclusive BFK - Rives paper.
The work described in 2 of the most important catalogs of Salvador Dali's prints:
- Albert Field "The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali" 1996, pages 189-200.
- Michel & Löpsinger "Dali - catalogue raisonné of etchings and mixed-media prints, 1924-1980", cat. item 1102.