The Park West Gallery Dali Collection is one of the most thoroughly documented and authenticated collections of Salvador Dali artwork available to collectors. Park West is proud to be a reliable resource for authentic work from master Salvador Dali, and is passionate about educating the public about the many works created by the Surrealist Master.
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Salvador Dali's Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy suite consists of 100 color wood engravings created between 1960 and 1964 after 100 watercolors painted by Dali between 1951 and 1960. More than 3,000 blocks were necessary to complete the engraving process.
In the early 1950’s Salvador Dali was invited by the Italian government to commemorate the birth of Dante, Italy’s most famous poet, by producing a series of illustrations for a full-text, deluxe edition of Dante’s masterpiece, the Divine Comedy. Ultimately, the illustrations were not well received by the Italians, as it was deemed inappropriate for a Spanish painter (rather than an Italian painter) to have illustrated the work of Italy’s greatest poet.
Even though the project was dropped in Italy, Dali and French publisher Joseph Foret continued to pursue publication of the Divine Comedy. Mr. Foret acted as broker between Salvador Dali and Les Heures Claires, a French editing and publishing house that ultimately took full charge of the project.
The Engraving Process
Working in conjunction with Salvador Dali, Mr. Raymond Jacquet, with his assistant Mr. Tarrico, created the blocks necessary for the engraving process. While frequently referred to as "wood" blocks, they were actually a resin-based matrix. Salvador Dali directly supervised the production of the works and gave final approval for each of the finished engravings.
Once the project was complete, all of the Divine Comedy blocks were destroyed. The engraving process required the block be cut, a single color applied, then printed to the substrate (e.g. paper, silk, etc.) The block was then cleaned and cut away for the next color.
As the engravings were made, the image was progressively “printed,” and the block was progressively destroyed. The process required great skill and resulted in works of spectacular beauty which cannot be reproduced in a manner that is not detectable as a reproduction, even to the casual observer.
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