The hawk & the dove

The time has come for a few reminiscences about our trip to Austria, about what we saw & did.

We started our holiday with a few days in Vienna.

Our first full day we decided to tackle Gustav Klimt. From my reading beforehand clearly he was going to dominate the holiday. As it happened he didn’t. Souvenirs with his artwork could be found everywhere, but the only original Klimt we saw was in Vienna.

Anyway we set off for the Upper Belvedere, where a large collection of 19^th-21st century art can be found, including many Klimt & Schiele.

The Upper Belvedere

The building itself is part of the palace complex built for Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), Austria’s greatest military leader, & is an artwork in itself. Gilt & Baroque twiddles appeared everywhere. Personally I think it would be overpowering to live with & a nightmare to keep dust-free. Nonetheless it was beautiful & shouted power & money with all its gilding.

As for Klimt. We did see some of his most famous works. The one that really hit me was “The Kiss”. I had always heard & read of it being described as a wonderful encapsulation of passionate love. I was shocked to realise I didn’t feel it was.

Instead I saw violence. Seeing the original I felt it was as though the male was like a bird of prey, a hawk, pouncing on a gentle defenceless dove. It was more of a rape than a loving kiss. She almost seems to be turning away to avoid his embrace. She’s unable to escape from the strength & power of the man. He dominates her & seems to force her against her will. This is quite a different interpretation from any I have come across. It had never struck me seeing this image in reproduction before.

I still shudder a bit at the memory of the image. I think we’ve both come back unsure about Klimt. I’m telling myself he obviously must have a certain greatness as an artist to have such an impact on me, yet what I saw repulsed me.

We did go on to look at other of his works, including “Judith” & some landscapes. What really struck me was the amount of gold leaf he used in all his painting, also the amount of intricate patterning, especially in fabrics.

The Upper Belvedere seen from the gardens

The Belvedere gardens seen from the Upper Belvedere, looking down tot he Lower Belvedere & across Vienna

I had thought we might stop at the Seccession Building on the way back to our hotel. This building houses Klimt’s “Beethoven Frieze”, but by the time we were ready to leave the Belvedere complex we were too weary to do anything except head back to the hotel. We passed the golden tracery of dome of the Secession Building in the taxi as we made our way to the train station at the end of our stay in Vienna.