Canto 18: Beatrice's Splendor, from the Divine Comedy

Considered the first major work in the modern Italian language, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy has been a frequent subject for artists since it was written in the 14th century. The epic poem is organized into three parts which chronicle Dante’s journey through the realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

In the early 1960s, Salvador Dalí produced a series of wood engravings for a six-volume French edition of the Divine Comedy, which included illustrations of 33 cantos for each of the three parts of Dante’s text. The present example represents canto 18 from Paradiso, in which Beatrice—a representative of Dante’s ideal woman and his guide through heaven—comforts the laurel-wreathed poet with her beauty:

"I turned to the beloved voice of my comfort, and I forgo speaking here of what love I saw, in those sacred eyes… I can only say this much, about that moment, that as I gazed at her, my affections were free of any other desire, while the eternal joy that shone directly onto Beatrice, contented me with its reflection from her lovely face."