Art Criticism - The State University of New York

ences cited herein, the femme fatale figures strongly in the work of the three
artists considered here. She is a loaded archetype that itself deserves scrutiny
through a feminist lens. It could be argued that Beardsley does woman a
disservice by robbing her of part of her humanity: the joy of sex. Surely as a
response toa changing society, however, he grants her a basic human right not
given to her by his peers: political empowerment, albeit by way of her sexuality.
Still, in the works of these decadents, woman is never both politicalJy and
sexually empowered.
Notes
1 J.K. Huysmans, Las Bas (New York: Albert and Charles Boni, 1924).'
3 Ibid, p. 197.
4 Linda Zatlin, Felicien Rops and Aubrey Beardsley: The Naked and the
Nude, (Ann Arbor/London: UMI Research Press,. 1989).
5 Ibid, p. 192.
6 Chris Snodgrass, Aubrey Beardsley, Dandy of the Grotesque (New York/
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
7 Ibid, p. 1165 from J. Reed, Decadent Style (Athens: Ohio University Press,
1985),p, 145.
8 ZatIin, p. 183.
9Ibid,p.197.
10 Ibid, p. 169.
11 Dijkstra, Bram, Idols of Perversity (New York/Oxford: Oxford University
. Press, 1986), p. 325.
12 Ibid, p. 194.
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