Art Criticism - The State University of New York

Messalina (1874), and Jason (1863-65) to name but a few examples. The dream
of sexuality is delightful; its reality is immoral and disgusting. 29 Des Esseintes'
enjoyment stems from the knowledge, that a realistic confrontation with such
a female is impossible. Moreau has usurped Nature in creating the woman of
des Esseintes' dreams. Des Esseintes can admire this fascinating creature from
afar without fear of a debasement of his ideal. His passion need never fear
consummation and its attendant cessation of sensation and experience. His is
an introspective, decadent enjoyment, which can never be disappointed. This
kind of impotent allurement characterizes the often yearning, dreamlike quality
of Moreau's work.
As for Moreau's private life, he did not marry, and like many of his
contemporaries he believed that "marriage stifles the artist." However, the
female figure, which took such a background role in his private life, dominates
Moreau's painting. She is never depicted in the warm, sensual, and accessible
manner of Delacroix, but instead as cool, detached, and aloof. She is, with very
few exceptions, the harbinger of death, despair, and downfall, in accordance
with the Romantic tradition of the femme fatale. She is represented as Salome,
Helen of Troy, Death, or the Sphinx. La Belle Dame sans merci was a prevalent
figure in 19th century art and literature and was by no means a creation unique
to Moreau. Fear of the degrading and sapping influences of sensuousness, of
volupte, runs consistently through 19th century literature and philosophy
from Baudelaire to Schopenhauer. We know that Moreau read Alfred de Vigny
assiduously. De Vigny expressed very similar sentiments to Moreau in the
poem La Colere de Samson:
An eternal struggle in all times, all places
takes place on earth in the presence of God
between the goodness of Man and the wiles of Woman
for woman is an impure being in body and soul. 30
The figure of Salome in Salome Dancing before Herod (1876) personifies the
femme fatale. She is dressed in exquisite fabrics and her body is adorned with
jewels. This Salome is not alive with the passion of revenge, as she glides on
her toes, enveloped in her own private aura of mystery and enticement. She is
the cold bewitcher, the temptress, and Herod is the unwilling victim. Huysmans
interpreted Salome as "the incarnation of world-old Vice."31 He generalized her
character to represent all of womankind when he described her as the "cause of
all the sins and all the crimes."32
More than any other painting, The Chimeras (Satanic Decameron)
(1884) is the reification of Moreau's prejudice and that of his artistic colleagues
of the period. This unfinished work is a mosaic of womanly vice. It is, in
essence, a display of the cast offemale characters from Moreau's entire reuvre.
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