Art, Symbol & Imagination
Initiation into the Black Art: After Aubrey Beardsley
A dark-robed young figure stands beneath pale faces, elongated candles and sweeping black forms. The composition is Aubrey Beardsley’s Of a Neophyte, and How the Black Art Was Revealed unto Him, reproduced here under the shorter caption Initiation into the Black Art. Narrow verticals and expansive curves give the scene its distinctive decorative tension. It is an artist’s imaginative design rather than a documentary picture of a ceremony.
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Citation
Aubrey Beardsley. "Initiation into the Black Art: After Aubrey Beardsley" [editorial title]. In Magica Sexualis, Émile Laurent and Paul Nagour. Privately printed; publication year not printed in inspected front matter, undated edition, Falstaff Press Inc.. Source scan leaf 282. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/gallery-20261108-0105-0282
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Descriptive title supplied for the visually reviewed historical illustration. The surrounding book presents the original author's interpretation.
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From the book
Magica SexualisÉmile Laurent and Paul NagourUndated editionMore from this book
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Where Is Mama Going? After Goya’s Capricho 65
Human and Cosmic Harmony: After Robert FluddRelated illustrations
Cite this illustration
Aubrey Beardsley. Initiation into the Black Art: After Aubrey Beardsley. Magica Sexualis. Scan leaf 282. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/gallery-20261108-0105-0282