Salvador Dali, Quaresmeprenant from Les Songes Drôlatiques de Pantagruel, Original Large Lithograph, 1973

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Description

Salvador dali
"quaresmeprenant" (guzzler of dried peas / collection of commonplace things)
from "les songes drôlatiques de pantagruel" (the drolatic … Read more Salvador dali
"quaresmeprenant" (guzzler of dried peas / collection of commonplace things)
from "les songes drôlatiques de pantagruel" (the drolatic dreams of pantagruel)
from the rarest edition of 50 only

original lithograph on japan paper
year: 1973
76 x 56 cm ca
hand-signed
hand-numbered 8/50

catalogue raisonné:
r.michler and l. W. Löpsinger
"salvador dali, catalogue raisonné of prints ii - lithographs and wood engravings 1956-1980" pages 155 - ref. 1420

with certificate

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history of this artwork

sometime in the 1960s, spanish surrealist artist salvador dali, already considered one of the leading artists worldwide, discovered a special book published in paris in 1565 by richard breton, as the 'last work' of the writer françois rabelais, and named it after his bestseller about the giant pantagruel. This book, "les songes drôlatiques de pantagruel", i.e. The drolatic dreams of pantagruel (where 'drolatic' means funny and amusing), consists of 120 woodcuts, each page showing a completely different figure: strange, hybrid creatures, combinations of man and animal, insect, plant and object, pot-bellied or hunchbacked, with special noses, snouts, trunks or beaks; each having a title in the end of the book.
enraptured and inspired by the new discovery, he chose 25 images and devised variations on these then four-century-old prints. These images have been printed as original lithographs at atelier grapholith in paris, and published by carpentier in geneve in 1973.

this very artwork is one meant to represent quaresmeprenant or caresme-prenant (guzzler of dried peas / collection of commonplace things).

here the original text in french (an english translation follows):

ce personnage, affublé d'un capuchon qui le cache presque entièrement, portant sur sa tête un benitier, en forme d'aiguière, garni de son goupillon, du manche duquel pend un long ro-saire; presque nu de la ceinture aux pieds, tenant au bout d'une canne la sainte mule du pape, sur-montée de trois plumes d'oiseau de paradis, ayant la main droite levée et gantée, en signe de prédication épiscopale, est le caresme-prenant. Ii est presque nu, parcequ'il porte, comme dit ra-belais, gris et froid, rien devant et rien derrière, par esprit de pénitence. Son priape étêté et rentré est l'emblème des privations que le carême prescrit. Il a réellement les ongles des pieds comme des vrilles, ainsi qu'il est dit dans le livre iv, chap. Xxxi.

this character, wearing a hood that hides him almost entirely, carrying on his head a holy water font, in the shape of a ewer, adorned with its sprinkler, from the handle of which hangs a long rosary; almost naked from the waist down, holding on the end of a cane the holy slipper of the pope, surmounted by three feathers of birds of paradise, having his right hand raised and gloved, as a sign of episcopal preaching, is the quaresmepenant. He is almost naked, because he wears, as rabelais says, gray and cold, nothing in front and nothing behind, in a spirit of penitence. His beheaded and tucked-in priapus is the emblem of the privations that lent prescribes. He really has toenails like tendrils, as is said in book iv, chapter xxxi.
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sold with certificate of authenticity, copy of the catalogue raisonné, and copy of the original woodcut and which inspired dali (we have it in our collection) this piece has an attribution mark,
i am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
issues arising from misattribution See less