The Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Bible Collection
at
Bridwell
Library
September 8 - December 12, 2009
The Vulgate Illustrated by Salvador Dali
Biblia Sacra Vulgatae editionis Sixti V pont. max. iussu recognita et Clementis VIII auctoritate edita. 5 vols. Milan: Rizzoli, 1967.
The “Clementine” version of the Vulgate Bible illustrated by the Spanish Surrealist Salvador Dali (1904–1989) is a livre d’artiste, a limited-edition book that showcases an artist’s sustained engagement with a particular text. The 105 illustrations, based on Dali’s original watercolors, were commissioned by his friend, Dr. Giuseppe Albaretto, who hoped that immersion in traditional religious subjects would bring the aging artist back to Catholicism. Uncharacteristically serene for Dali, the biblical imagery includes many allusions to religious art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.