Signed Inferno Canto 3 (Divine Comedy)

1960 Original 10 ¼" x 13" wood engraving, in a 20 ¼" x 23" frame. Signed by Dalí in red, and signed again in pencil. Original color wood engraving of the boatman Charon crossing the Acheron, printed on BFK Rives paper, with a deckled bottom edge, blindstamp of the editor J. Estrade of Les Heures Claires to lower left, matted in white, and in a black frame. Fine. Overall, a striking work by the great Spanish artist. In 1951, the Italian government commissioned Salvador Dalí to create 101 watercolor illustrations for Dante's The Divine Comedy, to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the great Italian author's birth. The decision to hire Dalí, who was Spanish and a self-proclaimed "Surrealist void of all moral values," was controversial, and the government eventually dropped the commission. Nevertheless, Dalí, deeply inspired by Dante's masterpiece, continued creating watercolors, finally completing the project in 1959. Dalí struck a deal with his friend, French publisher Joseph Forêt of Les Heures Claires, to turn the watercolors into engravings for a lavish illustrated edition of The Divine Comedy. Two master engravers spent five years (1959 - 1964) reproducing the watercolors into wood engravings, a process that required roughly 3,500 wood blocks (around 35 for each print). Three limited editions of Dalí's illustrated version of the Divine Comedy were ultimately released between 1960 and 1974: 4,765 in French, 3,188 in Italian, and 1,000 in German. In all, the project took more than a decade, and is now recognized as one of Dalí's most towering achievements. Salvador Dalí (1904 - 1989) was an influential Spanish surrealist artist, best known for paintings including The Persistence of Memory (1931), The Elephants (1948), and Cabaret Scene (1922). Dalí illustrated a number of famous literary works throughout his career, including Dante's The Divine Comedy, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Shakespeare's Macbeth. The Divine Comedy, Dante's allegorical masterpiece, describes Dante's journey with the poet Virgil through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The narrative poem is regarded as one of the greatest works of literature and helped standardize the Italian language as we know it today. Influential modernist poet T.S. Eliot wrote in an essay, "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third." Inferno Canto III opens with an inscription on the gates of hell: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter." Dante and Virgil pass through the gate and encounter the boatman Charon, who ferries souls to the opposite shore. . Fine. Illus. by Dalí, Salvador. Lithograph.