The Toilette of Salome

Aubrey Beardsley, 1872-1898

1894

From Oscar Wilde’s Salome

Although much less explicitly erotic than the first version, this dpeiction of Salome's readying herself for her dance has more outrageous books than the earlier one: The shelves to the right of Salome contain, quite anachronistically, a series of books then considered quite immoral or at least naughty: Zola's Nana, Les Fêtes Gallantes, the works of the Marquis De Sade, Manon Lescaut, and The Golden Ass of Apuleius. Note the Hogarthian technique of placing legible texts within the picture space that comment upon the subject depicted. — George P. Landow

Related Material