Coinciding with his Rose Period (or Circus Period), Picasso's first series of etchings in 1905, generally known as La Suite des Saltimbanques, were created while he was establishing his career in Paris and are mostly representations of the lives and private moments of characters of the Paris demi-monde and other bohemians. Picasso frequently attended the Cirque Médrano in Montmartre, Paris, during this time and drew inspiration directly from both the performers and the spectacles themselves, as is seen in this interpretation of this famous Biblical subject. This print evokes a story from the New Testament in which Salome causes the death of John the Baptist, who had accused Salome’s mother, Herodias, of an adulterous marriage to King Herod. The young Salome seduces King Herod, who promises to give her whatever she wants, and her mother instructs her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. The story was enormously popular among writers and artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Picasso’s focus on such a popular theme most likely stemmed from his close friendship with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, whose own poem “Salomé” was published in 1905. Both painter and poet chose to represent Salome not as the femme fatale typical of past depictions, however, but rather as the expression of pure sexuality and innocent love.