In The Sin (Stuck), how is the Comparison to inspired work of the Analysis elucidated?
Henry Ossawa Tanner would use elements of von Stuck's painting to create Salome, a work featuring the daughter of Herod Antipas who asked for the head of John the Baptist. Like von Stuck, Tanner lights the body of the nearly nude woman in blue and veils or decapitates her with shadow. Tanner tended to use blue as a spiritual color, but there context could assign it the values of holy judgement, damnation or death.
Stuck used colors, like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, for psychological value. He once expressed that blue could symbolize "mystery, eternity and calm." However, the context is not right in von Stuck's The Sin to assign these values to blue. Rather, from context the blue laid across the woman's body with the face shaded in von Stuck's The Sin could be symbolize death or damnation. Unlike Tanner's painting, the woman in von Stuck's painting is not filled with horror; the blue accompanies mystery and temptation as an enticement and warning.
The tempting body of the femme fatale, meant to arouse lust, is surrounded by darkness, and the orange patch over the woman's shoulder may symbolize hell.
Salome Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Herod Antipas John the Baptist temptation Henry Ossawa Tanner lust femme fatale