Abstract
While writing Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire kept on his desk two inspirational art works: a set of engravings by Alfred Rethel depicting a more modern, ironic, and hostile Danse Macabre; and a skeleton statuette sculpted by Ernest Christophe. With left hand positioned jauntily on her hip, the female skeleton wears a gown, is garlanded with flowers, and, right arm slightly bent, cradles a mask of flesh, looking as though she were about to attend a masquerade. In his poem ‘Danse Macabre,’ Baudelaire’s skeletal coquette is perfumed, elegant, and alluring as she leads humanity in a grotesque Danse Macabre.
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