Foret took a selection of Dali’s watercolors to the publishers Les Heures Claires-who were equally enthusiastic about the project. Dali suggested the idea of publishing his illustrations in a new edition of Dante’s epic poem. In 1964, Dali approached his French publisher, Joseph Foret, who was then producing a volume of Dali’s illustrations to accompany a new edition of Don Quixote. But when the first of Dali’s paintings were exhibited at the Palazzo Pallavicini in Rome, a section of the Italian public were disgusted that a Spaniard had been hired to celebrate their country’s greatest poet rather than some Italian. In 1957, the Italian government approached Salvador Dali to produce a series of 101 watercolor illustrations intended to accompany a new edition of the Divine Comedy intended to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth in 1965. The fact that this poem had already been illustrated by William Blake and Gustave Dore only added to its attraction Understandable therefore that Dante’s epic tale would appeal as a subject matter to an old superstitious Catholic like Salvador Dali. Dante is led by yet another poet Virgil-chosen because he described Hell in his poem the Aeneid-through the Inferno (Hell) on towards Purgatory and Paradise.

The Divine Comedy is an allegory about sin and redemption. Hell with its nine circles-its brutal, horrific punishments, fire and ice, mythical creatures and monstrous demons.

Hell with its gates and abandon all hope ye who enter here. Shakespeare with his poetry and plays changed the English language and offered an unrivaled insight into the human condition.ĭante certainly added to our language and literature and gave some insight into human understanding- but his greatest literary feat was creating our vision of Hell. In terms of Europe, he was right-though some may now add Goethe. Eliot who once wrote “Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them. The Divine Comedy tells of the poet Dante “midway upon the journey” of his life when suddenly he finds himself lost “within a forest dark” having strayed from his “straightforward path.” It’s like the opening of some grim horror story or even a disturbing pulp detective tale-where the hero awakes lost and menaced in a dark and foreboding place.

That’s the “tagline” for Dante’s epic allegorical poem the Divine Comedy. We are in Hell and have to find our way out.

The divine comedy paintings