The Kiss of Judas 1893

Aubrey Beardsley made this drawing, "The Kiss of Judas," using pen and ink. The linear quality of the marks, and the stark contrast between black and white, give the image its distinctive graphic impact. Beardsley was one of the great masters of the line block print. This was a commercial process, used to reproduce drawings in books and magazines. It relies on the relative ease of translating a clean, bold drawing into a printable image. The artist simply provides the drawing, and the printer does the rest. But Beardsley brought so much originality to the technique that he transformed it. His images are stylized, decadent, and often darkly humorous. He embraced this reproductive technology, knowing his art would be widely disseminated. It is an early example of an artist making the means of production part of the artistic statement. He understood the modern appetite for readily available imagery, creating a sort of mass-produced preciousness.