Salome and Apparition Detail of Moreau Watercolor Poster

Salome was the daughter of Herodias who, as related in the Gospels, danced before her stepfather, the ruler Herod, who proclaimed that she be rewarded anything that she should ask. In this detail view of Gustave Moreau’s Salome and the Apparition of the Baptist's Head, Salome beholds an apparition of her intended prize, the head of Saint John the Baptist. In the background of this intricately detailed watercolor, an example of the 19th century fascination with “Orientalism”, is a menacing guard with the sword and the plate intended for the head of John. Salome’s dance is also known in popular culture as the Dance of the Seven Veils. Gustave Moreau exhibited with great success in the late 19th century French Salon, and later became an important professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. His noteworthy students included the Fauve painters Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and Georges Rouault. His work has much in common with classical 19th century French painters such as Ingres and Delacroix, but he is usually considered part of the Symbolist movement with his literary, religious and mythological subject matter.