Vol. II (2016 Essays) by Marina MacLatchie
This paper discusses Orientalism in French Art Nouveau Jewelry. Specifically it argues that jewel... more This paper discusses Orientalism in French Art Nouveau Jewelry. Specifically it argues that jewelers drew upon salacious female stereotypes of Middle Eastern women as inspiration for their overly exoticized and eroticized jewels. To support this assertion, the French attitude towards the eastern female body prior to the emergence of Art Nouveau is discussed through the emergence of sexually duplicitous characters such as Salome, Salammbô and Cleopatra in French art, theater and literature. The works of René Lalique, Georges Fouquet, and Jules Descomps are discussed as well as the rich, modern French women who would be purchasing and wearing the gems. Through the creation and consumption of these decorative works, the French in the fin-de-siècle period used fantasies of feminine evil as a mean to subjugate the East while also succumbing to its perceived pleasures.
Uploads
Vol. II (2016 Essays) by Marina MacLatchie