Salome

After the turn of the century, Stuck’s paintings showed a much more controlled application of paint, as in Salome (1906).

Salome, the idol of the Decadents, is an example of synaesthesia and often appears as a theme in painting.

Synaesthesia is a condition in which someone experiences things through their senses in an unusual way, for example, by experiencing colour as a sound, or a number as a position in space.

In Art Nouveau, the word “woman” also takes on dangerous undertones, undertones of wicked witches, the man-devouring vamp, the femme fatale, the murderess Judith, of bloodsucking vampires, of sin and the dancing Salome - an endless procession of all symbolizing the fears of the stronger sex.