ICONOGRAPHIE, ESTHETIQUE ET GENRE :

CONSTRUCTION ET DECONSTRUCTION LE MYTHE DE "SALOME"

Abstract

Given the prolonged span of Salome’s depictions in various artistic media
(from literature to visual and performative arts) which arches from medieval to
present-day renditions, it is safe to assume that this figure has retained its potency
as an enticing cultural icon which lends itself to being constructed, deconstructed or
reconstructed in keeping with the particular contexts which shape artistic vision(s).
The present paper analyses visual renditions of the Galilean princess from Giotto di
Bondoni’s “The Feast of Herod” to Luba Lukova’s “Salome” against verbal textual
records provided by the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Wilde’s “Salome” and Carol
Ann Duffy’s poem of the same title by placing them at the intersection of iconographic, aesthetic and gendered interpretations of the myth in order to prove
that their layered and every so often differing or opposing meanings are both
inherent to the nature of the visual text and work as a means to impose, destabilise
or empower cultural roles ascribed to femininity.