The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors
This is plate number 8 from the lithographic edition by Rossel and Vidal for Les yeux ouverts in 1970; specifically, this one is numbered 288/469.
This work was originally conceived by Aubrey Beardsley in 1896 to illustrate Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata.
The scene depicts three Spartan emissaries arriving in Athens in a state resulting from the sex strike declared by women to force an end to the war.
The entire composition is framed by a decorative border in a maroon tone with vegetal motifs, an element exclusive to this 1970 edition that did not appear in the original 19th-century engravings.
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 been attached to 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 plates in the final stage of his life, marked by tuberculosis, which 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 Les Érotiques portfolio lies in its ability to act as a bridge between the provocation of the fin de siècle and the modernity of the 20th century.
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