Scheherazade costume design (1919). Umberto Brunelleschi (Italian, 1879-1949).
In 1910, the Ballets Russes introduced Scheherazade in Paris in to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov. “With its daring depiction of violence and Eastern sensuality… it tapped into the longstanding vogue for orientalism in French art and literature, while its erotic violent imagery tied in with the emerging cult of primitivism…” Ida Rubinstein and Nijinsky took the leads. Rubinstein was famed as a beautiful actress although she was less a dancer.