 |
|
The painting The Kiss (original Der Kuss) is the work painted by Gustav Klimt. He began to paint it in 1907 and it is one of the famous works in his 'Golden Period'. The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum, in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria is exhibiting the painting.
The painting shows a couple embracing each other with gold leaf on canvas. The man is kissing the woman, who has green hair.
The man and woman are on a flowery grassland. The man wearing a robe with black, white and gray rectangles is described in a rough way, while the woman is expressed with the smooth figures such as a circle, a curve, and flowery patterns. Her hair is also combined with flowers; it looks like she is surrounded with flowers. On the contrary, the part outside the couple in the painting is filled with flat patterning which has small gleaming dots.
"The Kiss" represents fin-de-siècle spirit because it shows a decadence through opulent and sybaritic images. Also, the painting has some styles recalling the arts of other period. Of them, by using gold leaf, the painting reflects medieval "gold-ground" paintings and earlier mosaics, and the spiral patterns in the clothes recall Bronze Age art.
