Few artists can rival Salvador Dalí in the spheres of self-promotion and myth-making. So successful was he in these realms, that his art is almost obscured by them. There is a tendency in the collective consciousness to reduce him down to his moustache and a few melting clocks. So, we can be forgiven for forgetting that Dalí was, in fact, extremely gifted as both draughtsman and painter. Nowhere in his body of work are these abilities more apparent than in the 100 prints he produced to illustrate Dante’s monumental poem. In his depictions of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso we are confronted with images of tortured souls and sublime visions, executed in simple yet refined pen and watercolour that stand in marked contrast to the slickness of his paintings and seem to possess an uncharacteristic immediacy that belies their lengthy and, of course, controversial creation.
Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, in which his narrator, guided by the poet Virgil, first descends into the depths of Hell, before ascending Mount Purgatory to finally arrive in Paradise, stands as one of the undisputed masterpieces of world literature. Few works can be said to have influenced the imagination of an entire civilisation on such a scale as has the Divine Comedy. It is daring, visceral and continually shocking in its portrayal of the afterlife, and since its completion in 1320, it has not ceased to furnish other artists with inspiration.
Signed by the artist and includes a full Certificate of Authenticity
