The splendor of the Byzantine churches with their gleaming golden mosaic domes and beautiful works of art spread throughout the Mediterranean area, especially in Sicily, with cathedrals like Monreale and Italy, with San Marcos in Venice. The colors of the silk jewel (the production of which was a state secret in the Empire) combined with gold and enamels made the Byzantine walls explosions of color. The Byzantines were aware of its effect on visitors and at times deliberately cultivated it, perhaps in the process causing the jealousy that sparked the Fourth Crusade and the eventual decline of the Empire.
Nowhere can the colorful golden influence of the Byzantine world be seen more clearly than in the work of the celebrated artist Gustav Klimt, but its subject was very different from its source of inspiration.
Where Byzantine art features two-dimensional portraits often of mythical and religious scenes, Klimt’s art is often described as erotic and almost entirely composed of female figures. Byzantine influence is seen in the use of mosaic patterns and ornaments, jewel colors, and gold. Klimt’s father and brother were gold engravers, and perhaps that is the reason for the use of gold in so many works. Although Klimt did not travel much, he frequently visited both Ravenna and Venice and it seems likely that this is where he was exposed to Byzantine influences.
Klimt began working as an architectural painter who worked with his brother and a friend to paint interior ceilings and murals. He received a medal for his work in 1888, but his style changed after the death of his father and brother. For 10 years starting in 1897, Klimt was a member (and at some point president) of the Wiener Sezession, a group of artists who protested traditional teachings and thus broke away from the Austrian Artists Association. Its aim was to offer exhibitions for unconventional artists and bring the best of foreign art to Vienna. They did not favor any particular style and received government support, including the lease of public land where they could build an exhibition hall.
Klimt’s own work did not go well at first. Some of the paintings he was commissioned to create were rejected and deemed “pornographic.” His later work was much better received, especially that of his “golden” period, in which he incorporated a large amount of gold leaf. In 1911 Klimt won first prize at the world exhibitions in Rome, but left little more than his art. His life was not full of scandals, he did not take self-portraits and did not leave notes or diary. He died in 1918 leaving many paintings unfinished.
Three of Klimt’s paintings received some of the highest prices ever paid for art with the Adele Bloch-Bauer Portrait which sold for $ 135 million in 2006. At the time, it was the highest price ever paid for a painting, though it has now been dwarfed by the $ 137 paid by Willem de Kooning’s Woman III and the $ 140 million paid by Jackson Pollocks No. 5, 1948.
Few of us have the money to enjoy an original work of art, or even the space to hang a fine Klimt reproduction; However, some of Klimt’s most famous works can now be enjoyed as sculptures and as such make interesting decorative pieces and useful gifts for art lovers or anyone who might enjoy an art-inspired gift.
