Gustave Moreau’s Salome and Death of Adonis

Abstract

Abstract This article aims to shed new light on Gustave Moreau’s artistic thought by assessing two drawings: a Salome variant and The Death of Adonis, both chosen because of how their unique iconographies bring to light—and to life—the opposition not only between gazes and genders but also between artist and artwork, divinity and sin, seer and seen, tradition and modernity, and, eventually, life and death. Employing several literary and figurative sources, the article analyzes how Moreau figured these confrontations and shows how he eventually solved them by examining the fascinating narratives the characters’ play of gazes offer the viewer, as well as the drawings’ bearing on Moreau’s understanding of artistic rebirth and (self-)identification through idealism and spirituality.