"When they ask me why I have depicted hell in bright colors, I answer that Romanticism committed the ignominy of making us believe that hell was black as the coal mines of Gustave Dore, where they cannot see a thing. All that is wrong. Dante's hell is illuminated by the sun and the honey of the Mediterranean, and this is why the errors of my illustrations are analytical and super gelatinous with their co-efficient of angelic viscosity..."
Dali, Diary of a Genius
After over nine years in the making, surrealist Salvador Dali's illustrations of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” were completed in 1960 and then published as a set of six volumes between 1960 and 1964. The suite, comprised of 101 watercolors, contains imagery ranging from the grotesque to the sublime and follows Dante from the deepest circles of Hell, up the mountain of Purgatory, and into Paradise. Dali considered this suite to be one of the most important of his career, while many art lovers regard this as his most notable work.
Although this dramatic painting of a fallen angel is part of the Purgatory section, I chose it because I feel it best demonstrates Dali's interpretation of those looking for their identity, a central most theme of The Divine Comedy.
As a studied student of Sigmund Freud, Dali bases his interpretation on Freud's declaration that "...the human body is full of closed drawers that only psychoanalysis is capable of opening." The brightness of color shows a sense of hope, a stark contrast from the dark despair and suffering of Hell.
Representing the Penitents, this broken, conscience stricken angel assumes a pose of abjection borne out by the tattered, drooping wings painted puce green, a color associated with vomit - the expulsion of bile and bitterness. The toes on the bony feet could very well serve as a metaphor for wringing hands expressing great distress. A bone protruding from the right leg, along with the knee bone of the left leg, stretching the skin almost to the limit. give testament to the bone weariness of this sad soul. The position of the angel's head and movement of the hands convey the intensity with which he/she searches his/her inner thoughts, symbolized by drawers emerging from his/her body. The drawers are each situated at a chakra point: the two drawers on the chest represent the heart and the ability to express love; the drawer below them signifies the solar plexus and positive use of personal power; the largest drawer, the sacral, located in the lower abdomen governs self direction toward devotion; the lowest drawer, the base chakra. relates to vitality, and courage.The fact that we can't ascertain the gender speaks to Dali's creative skill; this figure represents all who search within.
In Dali¹s own words his paintings form "a kind of allegory which serves to illustrate a certain insight, to follow the numerous narcissistic smells which ascend from each of our drawers." The empty drawers leave the onus on the viewer to determine whether the fallen form has met the requirements needed to replenish his/her soul in order to gain "freedom from the uncertain bondage of Purgatory."
Works Cited:
http://www.dali.com/blog/dali-prints-the-fallen-angel/
http://www.lockportstreetgallery.com/DivineComedy1.htm
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