Climbing up to Klimt: the artist became closer to everyone again

At twelve metres above ground visitors have a direct view of, among others, the picture cycle of 13 paintings designed by Klimt. They form an integral part of the sumptuous décor of the Main Staircase. These so-called spandrel and intercolumnar paintings number among the most important of Gustav Klimt’s early Historicist works. Although they do also show a flirtation with the Jugendstil style for which he would later become known.

While these paintings can usually only be seen from a considerable distance, they can currently be viewed up close and personal: the Kunsthistorisches Museum has set up a large staircase and bridge, weighing four tons, that allows visitors a remarkably intimate view of these often-overlooked paintings depicting the important periods of art history.

At some point it was decided that the grand entrance hall with the staircase leading up to the galleries would need some decoration. The commission to paint the walls in the hall was initially given to Vienna’s most celebrated painter at the time, Hans Makart. Klimt was said to idolize Makart, and Makart seems to have had a great influence on the young artist’s style. Makart did in fact complete the semi-circular lunette paintings in the entrance hall of the museum, but died shortly thereafter. Two other artists were commissioned to continue on the project before it was given in 1890 to the Künstler Compagnie ("Company of Artists"), an artist’s collective that Klimt had formed with his younger brother Ernst Klimt and school friend Franz Matsch. Klimt was 27 at the time, and getting the opportunity to not only paint the walls of such an iconic building but also the same walls his artistic idol had worked on must have seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime.

The museum had commissioned a series of forty paintings, featuring different periods of art from Ancient Egypt to the 18th century. But until now the museum’s 1.4 million annual visitors could only admire the paintings from afar.

Personifications — either male and female, or female only — symbolize different stylistic periods, regions or centers of art. Pose, costume and selected objects perfectly reflect style and artifacts typical of each period.

Gustav Klimt contributed a total of thirteen paintings. All were executed in oil on canvas in the Company of Artists' communal studio; in 1891, six months before the formal opening of the museum, they were glued to the wall of the main staircase.

The Roman and Venetian Quattrocento
Klimt stressed Italy’s importance for artistic development with three depictions: the first one is a painting of Ecclesia — the personification of the Catholic Church (below). She refers to Rome by holding the pontifical tiara. The reference to Venice is made by the depiction of a Doge.

Klimt’s Ecclesia is female, young and completely covered but for the chaste purity of her face and her slender hands. Richly embroidered with the scenes from the life of Christ, her cope envelops her completely without even a hint of the contours of her body. Ecclesia’s symbols and attributes are the pope’s threetiered tiara and the pontifical cross.

The Doge was the venerable Serenissima’s highest representative. In analogy to the papal tiara, his insignia was the doge’s cap. His pose and dress are informed by Giovanni Bellini's celebrated portrait of Doge Leonardo Lauredan.

Secondly, Klimt mentioned the period of the 14th and early 15th century in Florence and its surrounding area and, thirdly, the Florentine Quattrocento and Cinquecento (15th and 16th century) — both paying tribute to the importance of Florence as an art centre.

In the spandrels Klimt paraphrases Michelangelo’s David and Botticelli’s Venus as protagonists of Florentine art. The continuous background and bead moulding allow Klimt to anchor both depictions in the same pictorial space in which man and woman, even if not actually facing each other, are confronted.

Clearly outlined, David is a strong, self-assured and determined young man; in his left hand he clasps the bloody sword with which he has just beheaded Goliath.

After the successfull design of the museum in 1894, Klimt was commissioned to paint three works for the ceiling of the University of Vienna. That is how "Philosophy", "Medicine" and "Jurisprudence" appeared in 1900. But the society did not accept these works of the artist, considering them too frank, and therefore they were not exposed at the university. This was Klimt’s last public order.

In 1905 Klimt found himself forced to buy back the three canvases from the University of Vienna after the outrage sparked by their "provocative" nature.

However, thanks to SWAROVSKI OPTICS, a kind of reprise of the temporary Klimt-bridge erected in 2012, fans of the Klimt’s work always have the opportunity to view the paintings in Museum.

Based on materials from official site of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.