DAY FIFTEEN: J'AI BAISE TA BOUCHE

Salomé is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published. The play tells in one act the Biblical story of Salome, stepdaughter of the tetrach Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but to the delight of her mother Herodias, requests the head of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils.

These images above are from the first publication of Salome that was illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley. Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and perverse images and the grotesque erotica, which were the main themes of his later work. Some of his drawings, inspired by Japanese shunga, featured enormous genitalia. His most famous erotic illustrations were on themes of history and mythology; these include his illustrations for a privately printed edition of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, and his drawings for Salome, which eventually premiered in Paris in 1896. The first image is of the climax of the play "J'ai baise ta bouche, Jokanaan; I kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan."

J'AI BAISE TA BOUCHE (HERE) XX