1media/2012.15.1_BMC_f_2.jpg2020-06-22T13:31:48+00:00Alicia Peakerfa9ce5cf6cff641fdb630497ef4559c09dbe18582543structured_gallery2020-07-14T20:04:57+00:00Katie Perry7ff19bc04f332601a8fb41e63ea172fc306bf99bPlease allow for this page to load.
1media/VP.786_BMC_f_2_thumb.jpg2020-06-25T14:31:10+00:00Esme Readdd6ffc8b12ade875e94a3b39793298d8e4cb3bdeAfter Paul Delaroche (French, 1797-1856), Napoleon Bonaparte (1870-75), after painting of 1838. Engraving; Gift of Abby A. K. Turner Van Pelt Grimscom, Class of 1952, Katherine Drexel Van Pelt Beaver, and Charles B. P. Van Pelt; VP.786.2Dressed in military costume and with a sword at his hip, Napoleon poses confidently in the comfort of his study. Napoleon was known for his choleric nature, yet like Suyderhoef’s peasant above right, he also rests his right hand inside the opening of his jacket. This detail may appear odd, but it can be explained by the subject's social class. In depictions of peasants, this phlegmatic gesture was used to signify laziness. However, in depictions of the ruling class, the same gesture adopts the positive associations of temperance, leisure, and calm. Used in a depiction of Napoleon, the gesture may also be an ironic allusion to the subject's relatively low birth.media/VP.786_BMC_f_2.jpgplain2020-07-14T19:30:12+00:0020111109121839Katie Perry7ff19bc04f332601a8fb41e63ea172fc306bf99b
1media/VP.346_BMC_f_4_thumb.jpg2020-06-25T15:00:13+00:00Esme Readdd6ffc8b12ade875e94a3b39793298d8e4cb3bdeAlbert Alexander Paul Rouffio (French, 1855-1911), Hérodias (c. 1878), after painting of 1875. Etching; signed in plate; Gift of Abbey A. K. Turner Van Pelt Grimscom, Class of 1952, Katherine Drexel Van Pelt Beaver, and Charles B. P. Van Pelt; VP.3462While Symbolist artists of this period tend to focus on Salomé’s role in the death of John the Baptist, it was her mother Hérodias who ordered his beheading after he criticized her marriage to Herod. These artists, including Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, and Aubrey Beardsley, prefer to romanticize the dangerous but feminine allure of Salomé’s dance, rather than her mother’s more masculine, murderous rage as characteristic of the femme fatale. Rouffio, however, like Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) in his novella Hérodias (1877), shifts attention from the youthful daughter to Hérodias herself. His Hérodias reclines seductively, clutching her marital pillow and stroking the hair of the beheaded victim—an unnervingly calm, yet vengeful choleric. He discovers room for Hérodias to retain her femininity and depicts her as the femme fatale of this story.media/VP.346_BMC_f_4.jpgplain2020-07-14T19:33:52+00:00Katie Perry7ff19bc04f332601a8fb41e63ea172fc306bf99b