Dali's Depiction of the Inferno

Whenever researching Salvador Dali and his depictions of the inferno, I realized that these paintings have quite an interesting story. Originally these paintings were commissioned by the Italian government to celebrate an anniversary of Dante's Inferno. After the public realized that a Spanish artist, Salvador Dali, had been commissioned to paint the inferno there was lots of uproar. So much in fact that the Italian government had to chose a different artist, an Italian, to depict each Canto in the Inferno. Dali, however, was no phased by this uproar and decided to continue and push forward with his depictions. He ended up releasing his work 4 years after he had been originally commissioned to do them. Dali had a problem however, because he had no one to help him publish his work. He did not take him along though to find a Frenchmen named Joseph Forest to publish his works. Dali made a depiction of every Canto, not only in the inferno, but also for Paradiso and Purgatory. Dali's depictions are not beautiful but also have an interesting backstory.