Salvador Dalì, Act I, Scene I, screen printing, 31x42 cm, from Romeo and Juliet, 1975

The screen-print is taken from the slipcase containing the ten illustrations Salvador Dalì realized in 1975, for the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare. In the work here presented, the artist illustrates Scene I of Act I, and he opens the curtain on the city of Verona. While the servants of the Montecchi family start another scuffle in the streets, on the background of the city it is possible to glimpse the palace of Capuleti's lit up for the party. The father of Juliet is indeed organizing a party that should favour his plans regarding the marriage between his daughter and the young Paris. It is precilesy in that building that a little later Romeo and Juliet would have met and fall in love.
The screen-print is signed on the left bottom by Salvador Dalì, and it is presented in a velina carrying some verses of the illustrated scene:

“Dico a voi, uomoni…
che spegnete il fuoco della vostra collera perniciosa
nelle rosse fontane
che scaturiscono dalle vostre stesse vene!”
(ACT 1, SCENE 1)