The Apparition (Moreau, Musée d'Orsay)
[2] Part of a series of at least 8 closely resembling paintings and more than 40 sketch drawings, it is regarded as a key work of Moreau's opus, symbolism and fin de siècle art in general.
[4] Against the backdrop of a lavishly decorated palace inspired by the Alhambra[1] Salome stands out in an array of bejeweled veils, her body facing the viewer, her left arm pointing up in the air to John the Baptist's hovering head, enclosed by a halo.
[5] Its surreal setting and mystic air, evoked by obscure architectural and textile opulence, contrast with previous interpretations of the subject, making The Apparition a key work for the emerging symbolist movement.
1884) The Apparition stands apart from biblical and historic paintings of the period, incorporating elements of style which would become significant for the aesthetic and symbolist movement, while also anteceding surrealism.
Among his series of Salome-paintings, the climactic The Apparition is the most openly erotic with a bare-breasted princess turned towards the viewer, her naked arm directed at the object she will soon receive.
[9] Some critics also ascribed her statuesque posture to fear, like French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans who muses on the painting in his influential decadent novel À rebours.
[10] Moreau himself described Salome as a "bored and fantastic woman, animal by nature and so disgusted with the complete satisfaction of her desires (that she) gives herself the sad pleasure of seeing her enemy degraded.
[11] Emphasizing instincts over reason, subjectivity over objectivity and suggestion over definition, the watercolor features essential qualities of symbolism as coined by French poet and critic Jean Moréas.
Excessive detail given to foreign costumes and background elements as strange mural reliefs on the pallast's columns proof characteristic for Moreau whose artistic style tending towards exoticism and orientalism was often referred to as "Byzanthine".
[13] Rather than being solely a character from academic painting Moreau remained bound to despite his avant-garde tendencies, his Salome embodies the femme fatale of the Victorian imagination who was equally seductive and destructive.
(Matt 14:6–11, D-R) The unnamed dancer identified as Salome by scholars[16] has inspired numerous artist before Moreau, among them Masolino da Panicale, Filippo Lippi, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Titian, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Fabritius, Henri Regnault and Georges Rochegrosse.
Though classic academic subjects from religion and history were superseded by everyday scenes during the 19th century, Salome remained a figure of artistic interest,[11] appearing in Heinrich Heine's 1843 epic poem Atta Troll, The Beheading of John the Baptist by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Henri Regnault's eponymous oil painting and Arthur O'Shaughnessy's 1870 poem The Daughter of Herodias.
