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The Kiss Gustav Klimt. 1907-1908 C.E. Vienna, Austria. Oil and gold leaf on canvas
This one employs intense ornament on the embracing couple's gilded clothing, so thoroughly intertwined that the two bodies seem to be one
Form:
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Function:
- suggest all consuming love and passion— permanence
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Content:
- a kissing couple on a precipice
- little of the human form is seen
- her face
- calm and passive, but with eyes closed very passionate
- his neck
- a sense of physical power and desire
- large, richly designed patterning on clothing
- male is more rectangular; female more circular
- reminds us of a religious icon with the gold - v byzantine, v medieval
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Context:
- Art Nouveau
- Brussels, Barcelona, Paris, Vienna
- 1890-WWI
- seeks to eliminate separation of artistic mediums and combine them all into one
- a lot of vegetal and floral patterns, complex design, undulating surfaces
- During Modernization of Vienna
- in a time of chaos, an eternal and universal kiss
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