Gabriel Ferrier (1847-1914), ‘Salammbô’ (ca. 1881), (Dijkstra, 1986, p.308).

Of particular interest is the [fin de siècle’s] imagery of women and serpents. A plethora of images were produced including Snake Queen(s), The Scene of The Serpent, Egyptian Fantasy, and Serpentine Dancers. At a more generic level, images of Sensuality, Sin, Vice, Lust and so on were popular, frequently featuring women moving snakily, caressing or being caressed (usually ecstatically) by snakes, or with snakes forming part of their anatomy: commonly legs, thighs and loins, or hair. These images sit against the backdrop of a general flourishing of artistic works and surprisingly immodest stories in popular magazines about women’s ‘natural’ tendency to rapidly degenerate to a bestial past and engage in intimate relationships with animals generally (snakes in particular), given half a chance.– Sue Austin, Desire, Fascination, and the Other: Some Thoughts on Jung’s Interest in Rider Haggard’s ‘She’

See also: H. R. Haggard, author of She (1887) and Salammbô, Gustave Flaubert’s 1862 fantasy novel.

Jahsonic @ Flickr:

I’ve uploaded part of the images from Jahsonic.com to my Flickr account. I was extremely delighted to find that user Limbic from Belgrade, Yugoslavia offered me a Pro Flickr account as a present. So far I’ve uploaded these three sets: numbers, a and b. More to come.