Christa Giles

222
˝Why does she look at me with her yellow
eyes?˝ ˝I shall kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan. I
shall kiss thy mouth.˝ ˝Is that the queen, she
who wears a black head-dress sewn with
pearls?˝ ˝Salomé, come sit near me. I will give
thee the throne of thy mother.˝ ˝As queen
thou wilt be very lovely, Salomé.˝ ˝Your little
feet will be like . . . little white flowers that
dance upon a tree.˝ ˝I will dance for you,
Tetrach.˝ ˝I ask for the head of Jokanaan on a
silver charger.˝ ˝It is said that love has a bitter
taste . . . but what matters it?˝
The sexual metaphors in the illustration become both part
of a subconscious dream landscape and a conscious
intellectual reference. The illustrations are deliberately
provocative and disturbing, studiously not imitating
nature. Even in his unfinished pornographic novel The
Story of Venus and Tannhauser, Beardsley attempts to
transmute pornography into elegance and sophistication.
In this way, the actual subject matter is contravened by the
style, and moral categories no longer inhere:
I wish I could be allowed to tell you
what occurred round table 15, just at this
moment. It would amuse you very much, and
would give you a capital idea of the habits of
Venus’ retinue. Indeed, for deplorable