The legend of "Salomé" derives from a sparse Biblical account of the decadent stepdaughter of Herod, and her shocking insistence upon the beheading of St. John the Baptist.

The Salomé theme was prominent in both literature and the visual arts until the end of the Renaissance. It was revived in the nineteenth century by various authors, but when Oscar Wilde wrote his version of Salomé, in 1894, it took the world by storm. The decadent 1890's were not ready for what was about to happen! There was a wave of mixed reviews surrounding Wilde's Salomé, but even this was not enough to stop the trends in every area of Victorian life, from paintings all the way to fashion.

Wilde wrote Salomé in French in 1891, but the play was not produced for five years. In 1892, rehearsals for the play's first planned production began, but they were halted when a British government official in charge of theater censorship, banned Salomé, because of an old law forbidding the depiction of Biblical characters onstage but probably also because of the play's focus on sexual passion. In 1893, the play was published in French simultaneously in France and England with drawings by the artist Aubrey Beardsley, whose unusual illustrations have since become famous in their own right.

Salomé was a woman of evil decadence. She was perverse and cunning, yet, beautiful and seductive. She is depicted as the absolute vision of "the greatest evil" to all men. Her costumes combined with provocative dances were seducing and manipulating. She is the sensuous and absoluteness of evil, all in the face of her stepfather, King Herod. The public hated her, but yet, loved the naughtiness surrounding her legendary character.

Many famous performers portrayed Salomé. The most notable of these were the Mata Hari in her "Dance of the Seven Veils" and Oscar Wilde's close friend Sarah Bernhardt.

Oscar Wilde's version of Salomé, combined with the illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, and the discoveries being made in the Egyptian tombs all contributed to the many trends attributed to fashions, paintings, and the photographic postcards at the turn of the century.

Bibliography:
Salomé, Oscar Wilde, 1894