Beethoven frieze - left part, after the work of Gustav Klimt

by MadameRuiz

Beethoven frieze, after the work of Gustav Klimt

The full frieze can be found here: https://www.werkaandemuur.nl/nl/shopwerk/Beethoven-fries-naar-het-werk-van-Gustav-Klimt/1081780

The Beethoven frieze is a painting by Viennese artist Gustav Klimt, aka the Golden Boy. He painted this work in 1902 for the14th Vienna Secession exhibition. The frieze was applied directly to the wall. Meanwhile, the Beethoven frieze is permanently visible in the Secession building, which is located at the edge of Karlsplatz and the beginning of Naschmarkt in Vienna. It was where the artists of the Secession movement, the Austrian variant of Art Nouveau, gathered.

The frieze illustrates the eternal search for happiness in a stormy world. However, our happiness is threatened by both external danger and our internal weaknesses and insecurities. To the left, we see a gorilla illustrating Typhoeus, the personification of typhus, a disease that claimed many victims in many European cities in the 19th century, including Vienna.
To the left of Typhoeus we see 3 gorgons, exotic women with golden snakes in their hair. We know these characters from Greek mythology. The most famous sister is Medusa. They turned the people who looked at them into stone. Above them we see faces depicting death and disease. To the right of the gorilla we see the personification of lust, sensuality and intemperance personified by 3 women.

The work, which falls under the movement Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil and Wiener Sesession, is decorative and graceful in nature and bears Klimt's characteristic gold.