Title: The Wood and the Suicide, The Divine Comedy Series

Medium: Lithograph, Hand signed in pencil

Dimensions: 23 ½” x 26'” Framed, Unframed 10” x13”

One of Salvador Dali’s interpretations of Dante’s, The Divine Comedy. It is Inferno #13 and comes with its own Canto. The earthy colors in this print help the trees and human figures morph together in menacing warning of Inferno. A great example of Dali’s 100 Surrealist watercolors, turned lithographic prints, created between 1951 and 1960.

“They have broad wings, and human necks and faces, clawed feet, and large feathered bellies, and they make mournful cries in that strange wood.”

Dali was an unusual choice to illustrate the Italian writer, Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” to commemorate the 700^th anniversary of Dante’s birth in 1950. Dante’s epic poem is considered one of Italy’s national treasures, a work embraced by both Italian cultural institutions and the Roman Catholic Church. When it was announced in 1950 that Dalí—a Spanish Surrealist who had rejected religion in his past—had been chosen by the Italian government to bring to life a work that was so distinctly Italian. The Italian government eventually canceled the project but Dalí persisted with his illustrations, thanks largely to his affinity for Dante. Dalí had created 34 watercolors illustrating Inferno, 33 illustrating Purgatory, and 33 illustrating Paradise.