The Salome artwork pieces are an 1893 illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898), based on a Oscar Wilde play, Salome. The play is a historical view of Tragedy, specifically the behead of St. John the Baptist in the 1st century, recorded in the Bible (Gospels of Mark and Mathew) The background to the story King Herod Antipator married his neise Herodias -- who had also divorced her still-living husband, the half-brother of her future husband. John the Baptist, a significant religious man, openly and publically opposed to the marriage, as it was rooted in sin. Salome was rejected by John the Baptist – she desired him in a sexual way, but he scorned her as the product of sin. After dancing for her father, her reward was John the Baptist’s head on a platter, symbolizing perhaps, her revenge, rooted in sexual sin – erotic in nature. Salome was a vision of “Femme Fatale” as she kissed her lips to the beheaded cold lips of the grotesque vision of John the Baptist. (http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/salome.html)
These illustration of were done solely in black ink block print on Japanese vellum (http://va.goodformandspectacle.com/things/46911) Beardsley's visual interpretation of Wilde's "J'ai baisé ta bouche, Iokanaan" was published in the debut of the London journal, The Studio, in April of 1893 and is a historical representation of the changing views of marriage, the changing of women roles, which were resulting in more power, as women were often property of men, unjustly put aside or even killed for little or no reason.
"J'ai baisé ta bouche, Iokanaan" is, in my opinion, a definite “vengeful” scornful version of Salome. Her face has a hard, angular look of triumph – her hair medusa-like with spikes. John the Baptist’s own head of medusa hair (once his scornful rejection symbol against Salome) hangs limply, no longer holding the power. However, in a fitting way, his blood flows gently down into a graceful beautiful flower – almost a rebirth of the...