Salvador Dali, The Prodigality, from The Divine Comedy, woodcut, 33x26.2 cm, 1960/63

Colour woodcut from The Divine Comedy, a text that Dalí illustrated with 33 triptychs, each composed of three panels referring to the three canticles.

This image refers to Canto XXII of Purgatory:

We find ourselves in the VI frame in which there are those guilty of prodigality, that is, those inclined to give and bestow goods in an excessive measure, without reflection

The protagonist is the poet Stazio, much admired by Virgil, who is surprised to have found him in the circle of those punished for avarice. By the law of counterparts, Stazio actually explains that he is there for the opposite reason. Stazio points out that in the V Cornice one sin and its opposite is expiated with the same expiation; therefore he was among the misers, but to purify himself of the opposite sin to that of avarice, that is, prodigality.

The woodcut is signed by the artist in the lower right-hand corner. Published in the Prestel catalogue raisonné on page 109.