The Examination of the Herald
This illustration is lithograph number 7 of eight prints included in the work Les Erotiques, published in 1970 by Les Yeux Ouverts, under the direction of André Rossel and Jean Vidal.
The work depicts the moment when the Spartan herald is examined to verify the physical effects of the sexual boycott imposed by the women of Athens to force an end to the war.
The publication of this series in the 1970 Érotiques collection was a direct response to the cultural impact of Beardsley’s major retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1966. That exhibition removed the stigma of obscenity that had weighed on these illustrations and generated a wave of interest that decisively influenced the aesthetics of psychedelia and editorial design in the 1970s.
From a biographical perspective, Beardsley produced these prints in the final stage of his life, marked by tuberculosis that would cause his death at the age of 25. As a central figure of the decadent and aestheticist movement, his style was deeply influenced by Japonisme and ukiyo-e prints.
The historical importance of the portfolio-compendium Les Érotiques lies in its capacity to act as a bridge between the provocation of the fin de siècle and the modernity of the 20th century.
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