Henri Regnault (1843-1871) ~ Salomé, 1870 ✿

 Henri Regnault (French,1843-1871) Salomé, 1870 detail - oil on canvas 160 × 102.9 cm 

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Regnault dapprima rappresentò questo modello italiano come una donna africana, ma in seguito lo trasformò in una rappresentazione della tentatrice biblica Salomé. Capelli arruffati, vestiti in disordine, ha appena ballato per il suo patrigno Erode, governatore della Giudea. Il piatto e il coltello alludono alla sua ricompensa: la testa mozzata di Giovanni Battista.

  Henri Regnault (French,1843-1871) initially represented this Italian model as an African woman, but later enlarged his canvas at the bottom and right and transformed it into a representation of the biblical temptress Salomé. Hair ruffled, clothes in disarray, she has just danced for her stepfather Herod, governor of Judea. The platter and knife allude to her reward: the severed head of John the Baptist. Just months after this picture’s sensational debut at the Salon of 1870, the young Regnault was killed in the Franco-Prussian War. His posthumous fame was such that an outcry arose when the painting left France for America in 1912

Henri Regnault (French,1843-1871) 
Salomé, 1870 
oil on canvas 160 × 102.9 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art