Receiving with impassivity, or revulsion, or mild interest the head of St. John the Baptist is one thing, but touching it, fondling it is quite another. There are a number of paintings which show Salome in direct physical contact with the severed head. This hands on contact may be viewed with some revulsion, but it also directly links Salome with the martyrdom. In the paintings of Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist by Pierre Bonnaud (1865) and Lovis Corinth (1900), the contacts take on sexual overtones bordering on necrophilia, or a decidedly unnatural act, particularly with the state of undress seen in Salome. The emphasis seems to be on the nude or semi-nude erotic figure of the princess. Aubrey Beardsley’s Salome assumes witch-like characteristics in his stark black and white illustration (See below), again underlining the erotic, fetishistic action. The hair of St. John the Baptist assumes reptilian character--a male Medusa. This may proceed from Oscar Wilde’s play of Salome and the later Richard Strauss’s opera of the same name in which Herodias is severed from the plot ostensibly and the beheading comes from St. John the Baptist’s refusal to submit to Salome’s sexual advances.