Gustav Klimt\'s Paintings Show Byzantine

¶ … Gustav Klimt's paintings show Byzantine influence in particular the following four produced during his Golden era: The golden knight, the tree of life, the kiss and the portrait of Adele Bloch -Bauer I. Given that Klimt originated from Vienna, these influences are intriguing unless he picked them up during one of his travels. It is likely that Klimt was influenced by the art form that he saw practiced in Ravenna and Venice in 1903 and that this influence was then manifested in the paintings produced during this era. It is during this period, too, that we see an evolution in the use of gold, which is another aspect of Byzantine art. The following essay touches on the Byzantine methodology as evidenced in Klimt's four paintings and the historiography of the Byzantine influence on Klimt: Why did he go to Ravenna and Vienna; why might he have been using Byzantine sources; and where might he have seen such designs his visited countries.

Byzantine Art and Method

Byzantine art describes the art form that was prevalent in the Byzantine Empire from approximately the 4th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

The term could also be applied to art produced by states outside the Byzantine Empire but influenced by it, such, as for instance, art produced by Bulgaria, Serbia or Russia or Venice and Sicily. Much of the art produced by the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day is called Byzantine art.

Byzantine art focuses on the human figures and is one of surfaces. The figures are clear and painted in strong, vivid color. They seem to be almost weightless, floating even, and details of clothes, such as drapery folds, are omitted. The character's emotions are always subtle, never extreme, and these appear through the eyes and facial expressions. There is always a sense of classical control. Figures are defined by outlines, not by shadows, and they are arranged in balanced compositions.

Klimt's art portrays all of these styles and more. More prominently, he includes the Byzantine mosaic designs, geometric patterns and flourishes, the gold, and the jewel-like colorings. The human figures, erotic images of men and women, are also 2-deimentiosnal and they occupy the center of his works.

Klimt's art, however, differs from traditional Byzantine art in that whilst its two dimensional portraiture generally involves mythological and religious scenes, often incorporating Jesus and Mary, angels, Bishops, saints, apostles, and the Emperor Justinian with officials (or, when portraying mythology, gods / goddesses, mythological heroes, and cherubs), Klimt's paintings generally involve sensual scenes incorporating female figures.

History of Byzantine Influence on Klimt

Klimt regularly traveled to Venice and Ravenna and it is quite likely that it is from there that he picked up the Byzantine influences. Ravenna was the capital of the Byzantine Empire's western regions. As such it features huge panoply of Early Christian and Byzantine church architecture with mosaic-encrusted murals and friezes. Venice, too was controlled by Byzantine rulers in Ravenna for a significant period, and this is where Venice picked up its Byzantine art. Venice, for instance, is famed for its Hellenic institute with its Byzantine icons and the imposing Byzantine baptistery and cathedral of the Island of Torcello with its 12th century mosaics. In Ravenna, too, there is the famous mosaic showing the Emperor Justinian and Bishop Maximian of Ravina surrounded by clerics and soldiers. The whole is 2 -- dimensional portraying flat figures with the background filled in with gold. Klimt adopts a similar style -- 2-dimensional with a gold-covered background, excepting that his background, aside from Byzantium patterns, also contains phallic symbols (that have Freudian overloads) and other symbols that are intended to indicate erotic connotations.

Klimt's style changed several times during his life. His early creations were as architectural painter where he worked with his brother and a friend to color interior murals and ceilings. It is here that his brother's work in gold (both his father and brother worked with gold) might have had an early influence on him, most certainly reinforced by his frequent trips to Venice and Ravenna with their beautiful Byzantium mosaics. This style came later during the latter part of his ten years as member of the Wiener Sezesion. The objective of this association was to separate themselves from contemporary art and to provide Vienna with quality foreign art pieces. Klimt's pieces, at first, failed to win renown and only became accepted with his so-called 'Golden period' called so due to the generous use of gold leaf in his paintings.

Klimt's encounter with Byzantine art and his being influenced by it, primarily, initiated from Alfred Roller, a painter colleague who had a great influence on his life, and who had encouraged Klimt to visit Ravenna and study the famous mosaics there. Roller himself had studied them when painting friezes and mural for the Breitenfelder-Kirche. Accordingly, Klimt visited Ravenna the following spring and, taking Rollers advice, studied the mosaics. His companion, Max Lenz commented on the huge impact that the mosaics had on Klimt.

Gordon remarks that Klimt may have deliberately employed the Byzantine use of gold in his paintings -- particularly as 2-diemnstionsl background coverage surrounding his erotic figures -- in order to evoke the golden ground surrounding Byzantine art. In Byzantine art, such a technique is used in order to negate space hence time. Klimt may have adopted the same technique and intention with the idea of transposing the concept of loss of time in regards to the eternity of love. This can be particularly seen and felt in the famous painting of the kiss where only the faces and hands or the lovers are seen; their lack of self is lost in gold.

Similarly, the decision to imitate the Byzantium influence of painting image as surface could have been, too, to express the underlying emotion of the picture. With Byzantium art, 3-dimensionality was reduced to surface expression in order to express the spirituality of Christianity, whilst Klimt may have intended to adopt the same technique with the intention of allowing eroticism to protrude.

This can be clearly seen in the picture the Adele Bloch-Bauer of 1907 where the Adelle, clasping her hands, is dressed in gold is a gold-saturated picture. The onus is on the Adele with the swirling symbols hinting at erotic overtones. More manifest is this in the Kiss (1907-08) where a great swirl of gold studded with colored rectangles are intended to visually express the emotional and physical depiction of erotic love. The man is leaning over and kissing the kneeling woman. Both are shrouded in gold and bedecked with petals. Only the faces and hands of this couple are visible, possibly alluding to the lack of selves that both feel.