Art Criticism - The State University of New York

was further exoticized by her placement in a Satanic context. Huysmans' novel,
Las Bas, found woman as an agent of the Devil, sent to spiritually and sexually
seduce the protagonist, while the etchings of Rops saw her as His supplicant
whore. In shackling her to evil, it was easier to morally judge her. Beardsley's
illustrations of Oscar Wilde's play, Salome, however, posited her in a complex
role: a stylized symbol of evil. For Beardsley, she operated as a safe exposer of
evil, rather than an embodiment. Beardsley also provided a slightly more empowered
woman, coldly aware and in control of her sexuality. While in the case
of Rops and Huysmans, woman was a veritable scourge: sexually loose and
never satisfied. In addition, Huysmans morally judged her for a sexual anticlimax
while the aim of Rops' pornography was purely climactic. In contrast,
Beardsley stopped the viewer at the sublime moment preceding climax. Through
the spheres of evil, morality and sexual climax, the femme fatale in the work of
Huysmans, Rops and Beardsley can be examined.
Huysmans' 1891 novel La Bas or 'Down There' concerns an attempted
spiritual castration amidst a prurient interest in Satanism. The protagonist,
Durtal, is a writer currently working on the biography of Gilles de
Rais. De Rais was a rich baron who assisted Charles VII through loans and the
purchasing of soldiers during the revolution. He was entrusted with the care
of Joan of Arc until her death, after which he disappeared to the countryside
and indulged his interest in the occult. In his troubled quest for an alchemical
solution to making gold, he sold his soul to the Devil. This launched De Rais
into a murderous and wildly sadistic lifestyle as his extreme taste followed him
to the mass killing and torture of children as part of his Satanic worship. La Bas
posits, through Durtal, that De Rais was seduced into the supernatural as he
witnessed the visions of Joan of Arc. Here, Huysmans makes a clear statement
about the receptiveness of woman to the occult as well as her ability to lure
men to it. Durtal's friend, Des Hermies inquires, "Do you think the Maid of
Orleans was really responsible for his career of evil?" Durtal replies:
To a certain point. Consider. She roused an impetuous soul, ready
for anything, as well as for orgies of saintliness as for ecstasies of
crime. There was no transition between the two phases of his
being. The moment Jeanne was dead, he fell into the hands of
sorcerers who were the most learned of scoundrels and the most
unscrupulous of scholars. I
Huysmans suggests that even as a saint, woman can be responsible for the
moral decline of man. Further, if the most moral and sexually pure woman is a
femme fatale of sorts, aU women can be upheld to that archetype. Through
Huysmans' negative portrayal of Joan of Arc, it is clear that he sees woman as
inherently evil.
vol. 17, no. 1 47