Explore the Description of this artwork.
The work depicts a magnificent and extraordinarily ornate palace, where Salome, standing on the tips of her toes, is performing a dance for Herod. She is wearing a sumptuously bejewelled costume, holding a lotus flower in her right hand, and extending her left arm in a rigid gesture. She appears frozen, or at most moving in a dead march. In the middle, King Herod is depicted sitting on the throne and facing the forwards, with an executioner standing on the right and a musician and Herodias on the left.
The most astounding element of this work is the fusion of different cultural elements. These have been associated with the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Alhambra in Granada, the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, and several mediaeval cathedrals. Motifs have been identified from Etruscan, Roman, Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese art and culture.
Salome Alhambra Indian Egyptian Chinese art Roman Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba Etruscan Herodias Hagia Sophia