Salvador Dali’s Stairway to Heaven
Salvador Dali’s Stairway to Heaven
September 5 - November 28, 2021
Made possible by the generous support of Susan Hardwick
Tory Schendel Cox,The Virginia G. Stroeder Curator of Art
In this blog, I will briefly provide an overview of the exhibition, “Salvador Dali’s Stairway to Heaven.”
Reference catalog for all information and most pictures in this blog. To purchase, please visit the Museum Gift Shop or emuseum.org
Image Source: Tory Schendel Cox
When you think of Dali, what comes to mind? Do you think of his subconscious scenarios that explore the psychedelic? Do you envision Clocks? Or simply the artist’s notorious moustache? While these common portrayals defined Dali as a Surrealist, did you know he rejected the artistic style that made him internationally influential once he became a born-again Catholic in 1950?
Salvador Dali
Image Source: Featured Catalog
Throughout his career, Salvador Dali was the illustrator of more than 100 books. Among the most celebrated of his book illustrations are his portfolios for Comte de Lautréamont's Les Chants de Maldoror (1868-1869 CE) and Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy (1308-1320 CE). Les Chants de Maldoror, or The Songs of Maldoror, was a favorite literary work among the Surrealists, many of whom found beauty in art and literature devoted to the pursuit of the irrational and the macabre. A poetic novel of sorts that unfolds in a non-linear fashion, Les Chants de Maldoror describes the violent and perverse character of a despicable protagonist who has renounced God, humanity, and conventional morality. In a 2009 book review of Les Chants de Maldoror for the London Independent, Richard Milward wrote that "it is perhaps the most kaleidoscopic, stomach-churning piece of literature you'll ever come across."
Book Cover
Image Source: https://tinyurl.com/v45nkf5s
Transiting from disgust to divine, Dante's The Divine Comedy is considered to be one of the most important works in the history of Italian literature. Although it too is a poetic narrative, The Divine Comedy is told sequentially, taking its readers along with Dante on a journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory, and Paradise. In the text, Dante conceives of Hell as consisting of nine circles with steps descending into the depths of the earth, while Purgatory is described as a mountain surrounded by seven circles where souls are purged of their sins in order to reach Paradise, which is made up of nine circles. Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory is the Roman poet Virgil who, upon reaching Paradise, turns him over to Beatrice, who was a woman Dante had met in childhood and for whom he felt Platonic love and admiration. With Beatrice and angels taking him through Paradise, Dante ultimately finds God.
Book Cover
Image Source: Tory Schendel Cox
The impetus for Dali's illustrations for Les Chants de Maldoror dates to the early 1930s, when Pablo Picasso suggested to the Swiss publisher Albert Skira that he commission Dali to create a series of prints for a new edition of Lautréamont's celebrated book. Between 1932 and 1934, Dalí produced 44 prints for the project.
Les Chants de Maldoror “Plate 11, 1934” Intaglio Print
Image Source: Featured Catalog
Rather than respond to specific passages of text by Lautréamont, the majority of Dali's illustrations are free interpretations and are tied to themes that are prevalent in his Surrealist paintings of the 1930s, which include disturbing visions of sexual violence and death, with a strong emphasis on psychological paranoia and human mortality.
Les Chants de Maldoror “Plate 15, 1934” Intaglio Print
Image Source: Featured Catalog
By the 1950s, Dali had embraced Christianity and his interests had shifted to spirituality and mysticism. Accordingly, many of his paintings of the period include representations of the Virgin Mary and the Crucifixion, and his imagery tends to be less macabre than that of his Surrealist period. It is not surprising, then, that Dali was excited by the opportunity to illustrate The Divine Comedy, in which Dante accepts God, as opposed to renouncing the idea of a divine being as Maldoror had done. Dali was initially commissioned by the Italian government to illustrate The Divine Comedy in 1950, to commemorate the 700th anniversary of Dante's birth. Dali's hiring for the project became controversial in the Italian Parliament because he was Spanish and not Italian. Additionally, he had once declared himself "a Surrealist void of all moral values.” As a result of these concerns, the government sponsorship was canceled, but Dali persevered. Already immersed in the project, he offered it to the French publisher, Joseph Forêt, who was happy to produce the portfolio.
The Divine Comedy, Inferno, “Cerberus, 1960,” Colored Wood Engraving After Watercolor
Image Source: Featured Catalog
Between 1951-1960, Dali painted 100 watercolors in preparation for the publication of The Divine Comedy. The wood engravings that appear in the portfolio, which were produced between 1960-1964, are based on these watercolors. While some of the illustrations for The Divine Comedy reveal Dali's fondness for incorporating his own dreamlike visions into the project, the imagery overall is faithful to scenes described in Dante's narrative. Yet, in comparing The Divine Comedy illustrations with those that Dali created for Les Chants de Maldoror, there are several similarities, particularly in the Inferno, where Dante and Virgil encounter the most depraved sinners.
The Divine Comedy, Purgatory, “The Dream, 1960,” Colored Wood Engraving After Watercolor
Image Source: Featured Catalog
In illustrating Les Chants de Maldoror and The Divine Comedy, Dali explores subjects that were significant to him personally and, in both works, he self-identifies with the central characters, Maldoror and Dante. It is hardly a stretch to imagine the young Dali seeing himself as a sinner, particularly at a time when he was obsessed with Freudian psychology and undoubtedly experiencing some feelings of guilt. In The Divine Comedy, Dali saw a vehicle for experiencing repentance by projecting himself into the narrative in the guise of Dante. In his 1951 Mystical Manifesto, Dali refers to himself as an “ex-Surrealist" who has become a mystic who knows how to draw. The purpose of mysticism, Dali explains, "is mystical ecstasy" in which he describes it as “being super-cheerful; explosive, and ultra-gelatinous, for it is the aesthetic blooming of the maximum of paradisiacal happiness that a human being can have on earth.”
The Divine Comedy, Paradise, “Dante’s Ecstasy, 1960,” Colored Wood Engraving After Watercolor
Image Source: Featured Catalog
In closing, by illustrating Dante’s The Divine Comedy, Dali may have found a saintly path to finding his own personal redemption through the rejection of his past “Maldororian” self.