Monday, July 2, 2018

Up Close: Moreau's "Salome Dancing before Herod"

Gustave Moreau (1826-1878) was something of a Symbolist whose later painting style is a taste I can't seem to acquire. Your reactions to him might well differ.

Background on him and his career is here.

The Hammer Museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles and affiliated with nearby UCLA holds one of his most important works,"Salome Dancing to Herod." This subject, and the closely related one of John the Baptist's head, have been grist for many artists over the centuries. It can be interesting to compare their interpretations, but for the purposes of this post, the focus is Moreau's version of the dance.

The museum had an exhibit in 2012 related to the painting, and here is the Los Angeles Times' art critic's reaction to it.

I visited the Hammer in 2010 and took a few photos of the painting.

Gallery

This is the museum's image of the painting, I think.

Here is my establishment shot showing how my camera captured it given the lighting conditions at the time.

Detail view showing the main characters. Salome's dance seems pretty static, according to Moreau. Click on the image to enlarge.

Close-up of Salome. Her headdress is oddly shaped and makes her face seem somewhat flat. I'm no expert on ancient costumes, so I don't know whether or not this was Moreau's invention. Note that the woman to the other side of the king also has a high headdress.

My photo was slightly out of focus, as often happens when in museums using automatic mode. I tried to sharpen things, but it's not worth enlarging this because it's still a bit blurred.

5 comments:

Nemo said...

Also her left arm seems way thicker than the right one.

resborzage said...

Many years ago, when I was a student in NYC, this painting was owned and displayed by Huntington Hartford in his odd museum on Columbus Circle. The painting is huge! Really dwarfing. The impasto is so thick that the surface of the work is literally 3 dimensional in places. The museum was a tall very narrow building with a staircase going from top to bottom, each level opening onto a gallery with another gallery behind it. That was it - 2 rooms to a floor. The Moreau was the sole occupant of one of those galleries directly opening onto the stairwell. Climbing the stairs and seeing this colossal, pulsating vision was overwhelming. I went there, many times, more or less just to see this work and stood transfixed every time. Oddly similar to climbing the iron circular stars in the Moreau Museum to find yourself in the gigantic ballroom, display hall with dozens of this great artists mostly unfinished works towering over you. He, and his work is out of this world in every way. What a shame the French cared so little for their patrimony that they let three of the greatest Moreau paintings out of the country.

Donald Pittenger said...

resborzage -- I visited Huntington Hartford's Gallery of Modern Art once, probably in 1966 or 67 (though I can't rule out the summer of '65. Don't recall if the Moreau was there. But as the post indicates, I eventually caught up with it.

resborzage said...

Perhaps it was on loan from the Getty, or Hartford owned it and later sold it to them. It was around the years you mention, but more likely 68 or 69 when I was going to school at SVA. 2nd or 3 landing when I saw it. All alone is imperial splendor.

resborzage said...

And thank you for your wonderful blog. Would love your views on Frank Pape, who so fabulously illustrated so many of James Branch Cabell's great novels.