Les anges gardiens de la vallée
| Reference: | S44736 |
| Author | Salvator DALÌ |
| Year: | 1960 ca. |
| Measures: | 215 x 290 mm |
| Reference: | S44736 |
| Author | Salvator DALÌ |
| Year: | 1960 ca. |
| Measures: | 215 x 290 mm |
Description
Color woodcut, 1960, signed in plate at lower 100, signed in pencil at lower right.
Artist's proof, signed in pencil, printed on "Japon" paper.
In 1950, preparing to commemorate the seven-hundredth anniversary of Dante Alighieri's birth, the Italian government commissioned the great Catalan surrealist painter Salvador Dalí to produce illustrations of the hundred cantos of the Divine Comedy. The artist immediately began work on one hundred and two watercolors intended for publication by the Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato: the illustrations were presented on May 14, 1954, at Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi in Rome, as part of the first Salvador Dalí retrospective in Italy. Italian publication of the watercolors would not occur until December 1963: at the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro in Venice, the publishing houses Adriano Salani of Florence and Arti e Scienze of Rome organized an International Art Book Exhibition in which the Italian edition of the Divine Comedy illustrated by Salvador Dalí was presented.
Each “canto” is accompanied by a full-page watercolor. It took five years of work, from '59 to '63, to engrave the 3500 woods and progressively imprint the 35 colors of each plate; the work of engraving the wood plates was carried out by Master Raymond Jacquet under the direct supervision of the author. The plates are untitled and unquoted; references to the cantos can be found in "The Tables of Hell," "The Tables of Purgatory," and "The Tables of Paradise" placed at the end of the volumes.
According to critics, Dali illustrates Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise by reinterpreting Dante's journey from a psychoanalytic perspective, placing a particularly significant character or event from the canto at the center of each panel. The representation is dreamlike and desecrating: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso emerge suspended between dream and reality, in a single masterpiece, in which the elegance of the sign is combined with a masterful use of color. The figuration is ironic, grotesque and imaginative in the representations of Hell and Purgatory, while delicate and heavenly are the representations of Beatrice, as in an imaginary journey of the artist within herself. The journey into Dante's otherworld is thus interpreted in a metaphysical and psychological key, masterfully blending the deeper meaning of the Comedy with Salvador Dali's artistic sense, which maintains the dreamy Dantean atmosphere while adding to it his unmistakable surrealist touch with the famous soft figures, crutches, rhinoceros horns and flying bones.
Magnificent proof, in perfect condition.
Bibliografia
Ilaria Schiaffini, La Divina Commedia di Salvador Dalí. Una storia italiana, in “Critica del testo” XIV/2, 2011, pp. 643-674; Albert Field, The official catalog of the graphic works of Salvador Dali, p. 189-200; Michler & Lopsinger #1039-1138.
Salvator DALÌ (Figueres, 11 maggio 1904 – Figueres, 23 gennaio 1989)
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Was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work.
Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, Dalí received his formal education in fine arts in Madrid. Influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance masters from a young age he became increasingly attracted to Cubism and avant-garde movements. He moved closer to Surrealism in the late 1920s and joined the Surrealist group in 1929, soon becoming one of its leading exponents. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931, and is one of the most famous Surrealist paintings. Dalí lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940 where he achieved commercial success. He returned to Spain in 1948 where he announced his return to the Catholic faith and developed his "nuclear mysticism" style, based on his interest in classicism, mysticism, and recent scientific developments.
Dalí's artistic repertoire included painting, graphic arts, film, sculpture, design and photography, at times in collaboration with other artists. He also wrote fiction, poetry, autobiography, essays and criticism. Major themes in his work include dreams, the subconscious, sexuality, religion, science and his closest personal relationships. To the dismay of those who held his work in high regard, and to the irritation of his critics, his eccentric and ostentatious public behavior often drew more attention than his artwork.[4][5] His public support for the Francoist regime, his commercial activities and the quality and authenticity of some of his late works have also been controversial. His life and work were an important influence on other Surrealists, pop art and contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst.
There are two major museums devoted to Salvador Dalí's work: the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.
|
Salvator DALÌ (Figueres, 11 maggio 1904 – Figueres, 23 gennaio 1989)
|
Was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work.
Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, Dalí received his formal education in fine arts in Madrid. Influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance masters from a young age he became increasingly attracted to Cubism and avant-garde movements. He moved closer to Surrealism in the late 1920s and joined the Surrealist group in 1929, soon becoming one of its leading exponents. His best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931, and is one of the most famous Surrealist paintings. Dalí lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940 where he achieved commercial success. He returned to Spain in 1948 where he announced his return to the Catholic faith and developed his "nuclear mysticism" style, based on his interest in classicism, mysticism, and recent scientific developments.
Dalí's artistic repertoire included painting, graphic arts, film, sculpture, design and photography, at times in collaboration with other artists. He also wrote fiction, poetry, autobiography, essays and criticism. Major themes in his work include dreams, the subconscious, sexuality, religion, science and his closest personal relationships. To the dismay of those who held his work in high regard, and to the irritation of his critics, his eccentric and ostentatious public behavior often drew more attention than his artwork.[4][5] His public support for the Francoist regime, his commercial activities and the quality and authenticity of some of his late works have also been controversial. His life and work were an important influence on other Surrealists, pop art and contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst.
There are two major museums devoted to Salvador Dalí's work: the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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