Greek antiquity and Egypt (Klimt)
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| Greek antiquity and Egypt |
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| Gustav Klimt , 1891 |
| Oil on canvas |
| Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna |
Greek Antiquity and Egypt is a picture by Gustav Klimt in a pair of gussets and intercolumns on the north wall (center) in the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna from 1891.
Emergence
Klimt also executed other gusset and intercolumned pictures in the stairwell, including Old Italian Art , Florentine Cinquecento and Quattrocento, and Roman and Venetian Quattrocento .
description
Motif and presentation
The images are allegories of ancient Greece and ancient Egypt .
Greek antiquity
Greek Antiquity (detail)
Egypt I
Egypt II
Greek antiquity is represented by an image of Pallas Athene in the left gusset image and by the girl from Tanagra in the adjacent intercolumnium. The goddess, wrapped in a red robe, stands in front of a gray background decorated with ornaments . She wears a scale armor with a Medusa head , a spear in her left hand and a statue of Nikes in her right hand. The golden shield behind the back looks like a tondo . The outstretched left arm of Athena forms an approximately right angle to the columns , the spear in the left hand runs as a tangent to the arch of the arcade . Head and gaze straight ahead. The folds of the robe reveal that the goddess wraps her left leg around the right, creating a slight incline towards the arch of the arcade.
The girl from Tanagra holds a branch of laurel in her left hand . In the background you can see a marble parapet on which a large antique vase and a bronze statuette of Aphrodite stand. Aphrodite is naked except for her sandals and grabs her left shoe, apparently to take it off. Both women depicted in this intercolumni assume a stooped posture and turn their heads to the viewer with a sideways glance.
Ancient Egypt appears in the form of an upright Isis in a gusset picture (also Egypt I or Egyptian Art I ). Except for her jewelry, the goddess stands completely bare with bent left knee and hip swing in front of a richly decorated red wall, the upper part of which is provided with a hollow groove and round bar . A vulture with outspread wings is depicted on the hollow . The head of the vulture is directed towards the head of Isis, who presents an Ankh symbol in her right hand and extends her arm to Athena. In her left hand she is holding a square object that cannot be precisely identified. Isis' chin is slightly raised, resulting in a look with slightly lowered eyelids , eyes and mouth are clearly emphasized in color. She wears a black wig with golden strands on her head.
In the intercolumn to the right of Isis (also Egypt II or Egyptian Art II ) you can see two painted, anthropomorphic wooden coffins of the Titenese, a canopic box with a hollow groove and a central knob, a box and three shabtis .
Apart from minor deviations, Athene and Isis appear symmetrical to each other .
Details from Egypt I and II
interpretation
In addition to the erotic emphasis on Isis by nudity, hips and seductive look, Klimt served in Egypt I of irritation , to arouse the viewer's attention: Actually one would in one hand, a result of ancient Egyptian representations Sistrum expect that the attributes of this goddess counts. Instead, however, Klimt created a fantasy object with a rectangular, openwork plate and handle. Another curiosity is the vulture's head placed next to Isis' head, an unusual combination in original depictions of ancient Egypt because the vulture is a symbol of the goddess Nechbet and not that of Isis.
In Girls from Tanagra , Klimt depicts both the young woman and the statuette of Aphrodite in a stooped position, with the girl, in contrast to the naked Aphrodite, being clothed. An analogy to the spandrel pictures can be seen here: Both Athene and Isis stand upright, but Athene is clothed, Isis appears completely naked and could therefore be associated with the goddess of love Aphrodite from the intercolumnium. Through this analogy, the artist intensifies the eroticism of his Isis.
The influence of historicism can be seen in Athene , with the unusual, provocatively erotic depiction of Isis already heralding clear signs of a stylistic innovation at Klimt. The Isis resembles his Nuda Veritas works from 1898 and 1899, but the content of this gusset picture cannot yet be interpreted as Nuda Veritas . In Egypt I it is more about the erotic aspect and not about the search for truth.
Role models and aftermath
role models
Klimt used several models that cannot be found in the Viennese antique collections. This was probably necessary because at the time these spandrel and intercolumned pictures were made, the Vienna Egyptian Collection was no longer accessible due to the upcoming move from the Lower Belvedere to the Art History Museum.
Klimt took important suggestions for the objects shown in Egypt I and II from the following illustrated books:
- Auguste Mariette : Album du Musée de Boulaq 1872 ( digitized ).
- Émile Prisse d'Avesnes : Atlas de l'historique de l'art egyptien Paris 1879 ( digitized version ).
- Édouard Naville : The Egyptian death book of the XVIII to XX. Dynasty. Berlin 1886 ( archive.org ).
For the spandrel picture Egypt I , pieces of jewelery from the Atlas de l'historique de l'art egyptien served as a model. For example, the vulture in the gusset was created from a pendant shown in this book from the Serapeum in Saqqara , in which Klimt replaced the ram's head with that of a vulture. The angular, metallic-looking fantasy object in Isis' left hand goes back to amulets in the Album du Musée de Boulaq . In the Interkolumnium Egypt II , Klimt reproduced several of the pieces presented in this book with great accuracy. In addition, line drawings in Naville's volume provided the artist with important foundations for the intercolumnium.
The black figure standing on the canopic box is a monumental statue of the god Ptah from the time of Pharaoh Amenophis III. modeled after that has been in the possession of the Museo Egizio in Turin since 1824 . It is not known which image of this statue was available to Klimt.
A Roman copy of Athena Parthenos by Phidias bears a certain resemblance to Klimt's gusset picture Greek Antiquity . The black wig with golden strands on the head of Isis is similar to the design of ancient Egyptian coffins .
The ancient models for the girls from Tanagra are largely unclear . Although there are female figures from Tanagra in the collection of antiquities at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, these differ in their posture from Klimt's depiction. It might be conceivable that the artist was guided by specimens from another museum, such as a female figurine kneading bread dough in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, who, like Klimt's girl, has a bent posture, an outstretched and an angled arm. Various ancient figures of Aphrodite taking off a sandal are also known.
Aftermath
In 1898, seven years after the creation of Ancient Greece and Egypt , Klimt created the oil painting Pallas Athene , in which the goddess holds a small, naked female figure in her hand, which symbolizes the Nuda veritas ("Naked Truth"). In 1898 and 1899, respectively, he created two Nuda Veritas works in which Veritas holds a mirror in her right hand. Similarities to Klimt's Isis can be seen in the spandrel image of Egypt , who has an Ankh symbol on her right.
gallery
Female figure from Tanagra kneading bread dough (around 500–475 BC), National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Statue of the god Ptah, (Museo Egizio, Turin)
Example of an ancient Egyptian coffin ( National Archaeological Museum Florence )
Klimt: Pallas Athene (1898)
Klimt: Nuda Veritas , illustration for the magazine Ver Sacrum , March 1898
Klimt: Nuda Veritas (1899)
literature
- Otmar Rychlik: Gustav Klimt, Franz Matsch and Ernst Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Catalog for the special exhibition (Klimt Bridge). Edition Kunst on behalf of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2012.
- Beatrix Kriller, Georg Johannes Kugler: The Art History Museum, the architecture and furnishings. Verlag C. Brandstätter, Vienna, 1991, p.?.
Web links
- Gustav Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. KHM press articleon the special exhibition (Klimt Bridge) 2012. Accessed on December 23, 2013.
- KHM: Bridge brings visitors closer to Klimt. Article by the courier on the special exhibition 2012. With photos of the murals as a slideshow. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
- Vienna / KHM: Gustav Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. New Merker article on the 2012 special exhibition. Accessed December 23, 2013.
- The gusset and intercolumned pictures in the stairwell of the KHM. Article by Hedwig Abraham on the Viennatouristguide website, July 2002. Accessed December 23, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ^ Ernst Czerny: Gustav Klimt and the Egyptian art. In: Gustav Klimt, Franz Matsch and Ernst Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Catalog for the special exhibition (Klimt Bridge). Edition Kunst on behalf of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2012, p. 74.
- ↑ Standing woman with a fan. Image database of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. Accessed December 31, 2017.
- ↑ Greek and Roman terre cotta figurines. Images on Pinterest of antique terracotta figures, u. a. also Aphrodite, who takes off a sandal.