The Creation of Dali's Divine Comedy

In 1950, Salvador Dalí was invited by the Italian government to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri, Italy’s most famous poet, by creating a series of illustrations for Dante’s masterpiece, Divina Commedia. Dante’s epic poem is considered one of Italy’s national treasures.

Written in first person, it describes Dante’s journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Heaven (Paradiso) in 100 verses, so called cantos. The poet Virgil guides him through Inferno and Purgatorio, while Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman, takes him through Paradiso. Beatrice was a woman from Florence whom Dante had met in childhood and admired from afar.

At a deeper level the story represents, allegorically, the journey of life in the search of purpose and higher values.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was a great poet and a master of Italian literature. The Divine Comedy is a milestone in the history of European literature. It was the first literary narrative not written in Latin, as it was customary during the Middle Ages, but used the common Italian language widely spoken in Tuscany.

Learn more about the Divine Comedy suite and how it was created.

The Divine Comedy - Inferno

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Departure for the Great Journey

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Virgil Comforts Dante

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Charon and the Shore of Acheron

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Limbo

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Angry Ones

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Furies

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, On the Edge of the Seventh Circle

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Minotaur

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Forest of the Suicides

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Hard Margins

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Fraudulent Ones

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Prevaricators

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Punishment of Hypocrites

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Thieves

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Centaur

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Inhabitants of Prato

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, A Devil Logician

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Personators

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Treacherous to the Homeland

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Treacherous to their Hosts

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Avaricious and the Prodigal

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, On the Edge of the Seventh Circle

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Heretics

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Mount of Geryon

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Minos

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Cerberus

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Blasphemers

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Usurers

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Simonists

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Diviners and Sorcerers

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Black Devil

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, Bertrand de Horn (Bertan de Born)

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Men Who Devour Each Other

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Giants

Salvador Dali, Original Wood Engraving, The Apparition of Dis