Salome

1916
Not on view
Salome sits at the center of a sinuous vine, its flowering buds shaped like profile heads, reminding us of her request to have John the Baptist beheaded. This depiction was influenced by an illustration by the British artist Aubrey Beardsley for Oscar Wilde’s Salome. The inscription below paraphrases in Dutch Wilde’s text: "It is his eyes above all that are terrible. They are like black holes burned by torches in a tapestry of Tyre." During World War II, Arondeus joined the resistance and produced false identity papers for Dutch Jews. He was one of a group of fighters who blew up Amsterdam’s registry building, which housed the archive that the Germans employed to check forged identification. He was later betrayed, arrested, and executed. Arondeus and several other members of the group were openly gay. It is said that before he was executed he told a friend to "let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Salome
  • Artist: Willem Arondeus (Dutch, Naarden 1894–1943 Haarlem)
  • Date: 1916
  • Medium: Brush and brown ink and brown wash, graphite.
  • Dimensions: 7 5/16 x 10 9/16 in. (18.6 x 26.8 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967
  • Object Number: 67.794.3
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.