[surrealism] Dante / Dali (salvador, Ill.) - The Divine Comedy. Complete. 100 Plates.

DANTE ALIGHIERI
-
DALI (Salvador, ill.)

The Divine Comedy
[including:]
Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradise.

Paris, Editions d'art Les Heures claires / [Joseph Foret], (1963).

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6 vols. in small folio format (348 x 278 mm), 183, 189, 182; 204, 189, 182, and 193 pp., in sheets, with a titled cover featuring filled flaps and a cream-colored full-cardboard slipcase, covers adorned with interlacing gilt fillets embossed in relief extending onto the spines, which are smooth, with the title embossed lengthwise in relief and the volume number embossed.

Complete set of the 6 volumes comprising the work, along with its 100 full-page color illustrations based on watercolors by Salvador Dalí; this is the first edition.

One of the copies from the numbered edition printed on Rives pure-fiber vellum.

These “100 watercolors engraved on wood required 3,500 woodblocks.” (in Monod).

“The hundred color woodcuts rank among the most exciting and evocative in the history of Dante’s illustrations.” (in Wünschel).

“Dalí himself saw this work as one of the pinnacles of his creative powers.”

“Dalí worked for nearly 10 years on the illustrations, and it took the publisher another 4 years to carve the 3,500 woodblocks capable of reproducing the colors of the original illustrations.”

The work recounts the narrator’s imaginary journey as he suddenly finds himself plunged into a dark forest. There, he meets Virgil, who invites him to enter the world of the afterlife. Dante follows him, and his journey begins with a visit to Hell and its nine circles...

Monod I, Manual for Lovers of Modern Illustrated Books, 3398 - Wünschel/Tuchel III, 1–100.

Slight surface wear affecting the slipcases; one of which has a small crack beginning to form along two edges. A few rare and faint foxing spots are present in the book blocks; however, four leaves are more heavily affected. Otherwise, the set is in fine condition.