Compositional Sketch for "Medicine", Gustav Klimt (1898)
In his study for Medicine, Klimt created a dramatic, dynamic composition. Hygieia, Greek goddess of health and cleanliness, stands in the lower foreground, identified by her mistletoe wreath and the bowl in her hand. A provocative female nude floats above her to the left, alongside a revolving column of symbolic figures. In this vortex, sickness is represented as a gaunt woman in red, death as a skull emerging from a diaphanous black shroud. A man’s arm reaches out as if to grab the nude woman, drawing life into death.
