The Sphinx, or The Caresses
by KHNOPFF, Fernand, Oil on canvas, 51 x 151 cm
A theme of temptation seems to be the subject of Caresses, in which a semi-nude androgynous figure resists a female-headed leopard. The striking and provocative image suggests the struggle of artistic idealism against sensual temptation.
The many sphinx (a winged monster having a woman’s head and a lion’s body) figures in Khnopff’s work are not allegories; as Mallarm� interprets them, they are “ideas” of the senses.