Art Criticism - The State University of New York

of Moreau's works is vague and mysterious. He was not concerned with a
naturalistic depiction of the landscape, and the strange terrain often increases
the mystery and the surreal nature of the image. Such barren, unrecognizable
and often inhospitable environments heighten the impression of a world remote
from the increasingly engineered landscapes of fin-de-siecle France. The
accompanying dusky, reddening sky where the sun casts a dying light, and the
autumnal or twilight charms so common in Moreau's work, are a perfect backdrop
to the sense of a demise of an ancient order so poignantly felt by Moreau's
most ardent admirers, the elegant upper-class of the Faubourg Saint-Germain.
We read in Against The Grain that Gustave Moreau's art ravished
des Esseintes with "unceasing transports of pleasure. "15 "Moreover, the artist
seemed to have wished to mark his deliberate purpose to keep outside centuries
of history; to give no definite indication of race or country or period."16
The counter-reality Moreau continuously painted correlated perfectly with the
overriding desire of the late 19th century decadents to distance themselves
from the common horde, from the influx of science and technology, and from
their profiteers.
One of Moreau's guiding aesthetic principles was la belle inertie
(beautiful inertia).!7 This quality of calm enigma dominates Moreau's reuvre.1t
is especially apparent in Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864). The implicit violence
and passion of the moment are transcended by the reserve and poise maintained
by the painting's two main subjects. "The mysteriousness at the core of
Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864) derives from a characteristic he derived from
Michelangelo and employed for the first time in this work: the use of static
figures whose staring expressions suggest they are lost in thought or dream."!8
Moreau strove to avoid the direct portrayal of base passions. The characters
in his paintings populate an imaginary frozen world, where even the most
tragic or violent moment fails to break through the wall containing their emotions.
The eclectic mix of influences apparent in Moreau's work further contributes
to the otherworldliness of his paintings. It is often impossible to pinpoint
a time or place in history. There are many points of reference, but they do .
not combine to a conclusive whole. Often only the written narrative or the
painting's title serves to clarify the image in the viewer's mind. Moreau accompanied
many of his paintings with a commentary (written for his deaf mother),
and these notes have proved invaluable. The painting Salome Dancing Before
Herod (1876) is a major example of the accumulation of a number of eclectic
sources. In preparing for this work, Moreau's already voracious imagination
had been "stimulated by prints in the museum catalogues and archaeological
publications which he looked through in the print room of the Louvre."19
Salome's bejeweled attire is "reminiscent ofIndian deities."20 The statues of
ancient Gods, the black panther, Herod's jewel-encrusted throne, and the pal-
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Art Criticism