R7,000 - R10,000
Salvador Dalí (Spanish 1904 - 1989) THE GOLDEN AGE OF DON QUIXOTE
lithograph
signed and numbered 65/250 in pencil in the margin
sheet size: 48 by 66,5cm; 82,5 by 99 by 3cm including framing
Salvador Dalí, known for his paintings, drawings, and surrealistic writings, was also an accomplished illustrator for many of literature’s greatest texts. Through his career, Dalí illustrated various classic works of literature, from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, to mention just a few.
Of these projects, the one most closely linked to Dalí’s own cultural heritage, was Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote De La Mancha. Dalí illustrated the 1946 edition of the novel, for which he created 38 unique drawings and watercolours of Don Quixote’s horseback adventures across Spain. Almost two decades later, Dalí received a commission to create a suite of prints inspired by the icons of Spanish culture, and again turned to this inspirational novel.
The story, one of the very earliest examples of what would come to be known as the modern ‘novel’, takes place in 16th century Spain and details the adventures of the self-proclaimed noble knight Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza. Obsessed with tales of chivalry and honour, Don Quixote resolves to take his sword and trusty steed to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked, as he rides, in a bitter-sweet chronicle, across Spain in search of illusory glory and grand adventure, all in the name of his obsession, his ladylove, Dulcinea.
Dali’s interest in this pinnacle of literature was centred on the “the personality of Don Quixote,” (Cervantes, 1946, p. 78), a fiercely intelligent and, at times, seemingly-sane character, despite his delusions of grandeur and refusal to accept his own grim reality, brought on from, in Sancho’s all-too-knowing words, “too many romances”.
Quixote remains an enigma throughout the novel, a character with whom we may have difficulty understanding and sympathizing, as we attempt to guage his relation to, and connection with, reality and fantasy, and his place within his own world. Dalí embraced the fluidity and interpretability of Cervantes’ hero to explore the relation between self and the world, conscious and unconscious, reality and fantasy, and thereby explored the heart of the surrealist mind-set.
In all of these publications, and others, we are privileged to see how Dalí expands his own established lexicon and iconography. His personal universe, his subconscious and interests are evident in these illustrations, and begin to bleed into other works and projects. The text enriches the image, and the latter gives a new perspective to the text, creating a perfect symbiosis that stimulates our imagination.
-AF
Popova, M. [Na]. Salvador Dalí Illustrates Don Quixote: The art of fighting surrealist windmills, Accessed 2 September 2021:
https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/10/09/salvador-dali-illustrates-don-quixote/
Harkness, S. & Wunderle, A. 2016. Discovering Dalí in book illustrations, Part 1, Accessed 2 September 2021:
https://thedali.org/exhibit/discovering-dali-in-book-illustrations-part-1-2/
Britannica, 2021. Don Quixote, Accessed 2 September 2021:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Don-Quixote-novel
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