Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings
Encyclopedia
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
for the ceiling of the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
's Great Hall between the years of 1900-1907. In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to paint the ceiling. Upon presenting his paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence, Klimt came under attack for 'pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
' and 'perverted excess' in the paintings. None of the paintings would go on display in the university. In May 1945 all three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS forces.
Philosophy
Philosophy was the first of the three pictures presented to the Austrian Government at the seventh Vienna SecessionVienna Secession
The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
exhibition in March 1900. It had been awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, but was attacked by those in his own country. Klimt described the painting as follows: "On the left a group of figures, the beginning of life, fruition, decay. On the right, the globe as mystery. Emerging below, a figure of light: knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
."
Critics were disturbed by its depiction of men and women drifting in an aimless trance. The original proposal for the theme of the painting was "The Victory of Light over Darkness", but what Klimt presented instead was a dreamlike mass of humanity, referring neither to optimism nor rationalism, but to a "viscous void". A rough study of the painting can be found here.
Medicine
Medicine was the second painting, presented in March 1901 at the tenth Secession Exhibition. It featured a column of nude figures on the right hand side of the painting, representing the river of life. Beside it was a young nude female who floated in space, with a newborn infantInfant
A newborn or baby is the very young offspring of a human or other mammal. A newborn is an infant who is within hours, days, or up to a few weeks from birth. In medical contexts, newborn or neonate refers to an infant in the first 28 days after birth...
at her feet, representing life. A skeleton
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
represented death in the river of life . The only link between the floating woman and the river of bodies is two arms, the woman's and a man's as seen from behind. At the bottom of the painting Hygieia
Hygieia
In Greek and Roman mythology, Hygieia , was a daughter of the god of medicine, Asclepius. She was the goddess/personification of health , cleanliness and sanitation. She also played an important part in her father's cult...
stood with the Aesculapian snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
around her arm and the cup of Lethe
Lethe
In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of the five rivers of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos , the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness...
in her hand, turning her back to mankind. Klimt conveyed an ambiguous unity of life and death, with nothing to celebrate the role of medicine or the science of healing. Upon display of the painting in 1901, he was attacked by critics who could have noted that Vienna was leading the world in medical research under such figures as Theodor Billroth
Theodor Billroth
Christian Albert Theodor Billroth was a German-born Austrian surgeon and amateur musician....
(1829-94), Frantisek Chvostek
František Chvostek
František Chvostek was an Czecho-Austrian military physician. He is most notable for having described Chvostek's sign....
(1835-84), and Ludwig Türck
Ludwig Türck
Ludwig Türck was an Austrian neurologist who was a native of Vienna. In 1836 he obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Vienna, where in 1864 he became a full professor....
(1810-68). An editorial in the Medizinische Wochenschrift complained that the painter had ignored doctors' two main achievements, prevention
Preventive medicine
Preventive medicine or preventive care refers to measures taken to prevent diseases, rather than curing them or treating their symptoms...
and cure
Cure
A cure is a completely effective treatment for a disease.The Cure is an English rock band.Cure, or similar, may also refer to:-Film and television:* The Cure , a short film starring Charlie Chaplin...
. For a rough composition draft of the painting see here.
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence was the third of the paintings presented at the eighteenth Secession Exhibition in November 1903. As in the other murals, the central theme is man's conflicted existence. It, too, is laden with anxiety: A condemned man is depicted surrounded by the three female furies: Truth, Justice and Law. They are shown as the EumenidesEumenides
Eumenides may refer to:* Another name for the Erinyes, Greek deities of vengeance* The Eumenides, the third part of Aeschylus' Greek tragedy, the Oresteia...
, punishing the condemned man with an octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
's deadly embrace. It is not surprising that the conflict in Jurisprudence has been seen as "psycho-sexual".
Reaction
The paintings were attacked by critics when they were presented, as each painting broke different cultural taboos, contradicting the trend of the era to 'sublimate reality and to only present its more favourable aspects.'(Neret) The paintings also drew the standard charges of obscenity which Klimt often faced. Eighty-seven faculty members protested against the murals, and in 1901 a public prosecutor was called in and the issue even reached the Parliament of AustriaParliament of Austria
In the Parliament of Austria is vested the legislative power of the Republic of Austria. The institution consists of two chambers,* the National Council and* the Federal Council ....
, the first time that a cultural debate had ever been raised there, but in the end no action was taken. Only the education minister defended Klimt, and when Klimt was elected to be a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1901 the government refused to ratify the action. He was never offered another teaching position. This would also be the last time Klimt would accept commissions from the state, remarking: "I've had enough of censorship...I reject all state support, I don't want any of it."
A later painting of his entitled Goldfish (to my critics) (1901-1902) which showed a smiling, beautiful woman projecting her bottom at the viewer, an obvious response to all those who attacked the 'pornography' and perverted excess' of the University paintings.
Outcome and destruction
The paintings were requested for an exhibitionArt exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
in St Louis in 1904, but the ministry declined, nervous of what the reaction might be. Klimt then resigned his commission
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
, wishing to keep his work, but the ministry insisted they were already property of the state. Only when Klimt threatened the removal staff with a shotgun was he able to keep his painting. Klimt repaid his advance of 30,000 crowns with the support of August Lederer, one of his major patrons, who in return received Philosophy. In 1911 Medicine and Jurisprudence were bought by Klimt's friend and fellow artist, Koloman Moser
Koloman Moser
Koloman Moser was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte....
. Medicine eventually came into the possession of a Jewish family, and in 1938 the painting was seized by Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In 1943, after a final exhibition, they were moved to Schloss Immendorf, a castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
in Lower Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, for protection. In May 1945 the paintings were destroyed as retreating German SS forces set fire to the castle to prevent it falling into enemy hands. All that remains now are preparatory sketches and a few photographs, most notably that of one focusing solely on Hygieia. Only one photograph remains of the complete painting of Medicine, taken just before it was destroyed.
