Female Corporeality and Religion 2023
Online Art Exhibition
Salome
Volodymyr Slepchenko
The work performed in author's original technique “Artline”
Oil on canvas
100 x 90 cm
2021
€5000
Description
She danced for the king Herod so beautifully that he offered her any reward she desired. Taking advantage of young Salome’s inexperience, her stepmother Herodias persuaded her to ask for the beheading of John the Baptist. And so it happened. The painting depicts the beautiful Salome, but her body and flawless mastery of dance become the cause of death for the righteous man, which even the cruel ruler does not desire. Therefore, her left hand rests on the bloodied platter. Many details in the painting allude to the crime: above the dancing figure in the upper part of the hall, the head of John can be seen. Salome is adorned with red precious stones, and her veil in the dance – made of thin transparent fabric – seems to be woven from bloody tears. While there is a tradition of viewing Salome’s story as exemplifying the dangers of women’s beauty, it can also be understood as testifying to the male fear of female corporeality, and the potential to use it as a justification for their own crimes.
Volodymyr Slepchenko
In his work, academician Volodymyr Slepchenko constantly returns to the theme of the female body in various cultural and sociological contexts.
Volodymyr Slepchenko (b. 1947) is a Ukrainian painter, graphic and monumental artist, and master of psychological portraiture. He works in the artistic orientation of romantic symbolism, inventing his own technique and unique artline style. People's Artist of Ukraine, Honored Artist of Ukraine, academician. Head of the Department of Culture and Arts and Academician of the World Academy of Arts (MONDIAL ART ACADEMIA), France.
He has participated in numerous regional, national, foreign and international exhibitions. He is the winner of many national and international awards, including the Botticelli Prize in 2019. Since 1970, he has held more than 80 personal exhibitions in Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Canada, Israel, Slovakia, Italy, Greece, Spain, Japan and other countries. He was a participant in the group exhibition of Ukrainian artists "Autumn Salon-90" in Paris (France) in 1990.
Volodymyr Slepchenko's paintings and graphic works are held in museums, galleries and private collections in Ukraine and in many countries of the world. Since 2005, the portrait of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta Andrew Bertie has been on permanent display at the Gallery of Portraits of Grand Masters in Malta. Since 2018, the painting "The Great Baptism" has found a place of honor in the permanent exhibition on the second floor of the main shrine of Ukraine - St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.
For more than 50 years, the artist has been fruitfully working in various types and genres of fine arts, but among the main works of the artist are paintings on historical themes from the Trypillia era to the present.
