Essay --

The 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition (1902) was dedicated to the appreciation and celebration of Ludwin van Beethoven. The famous and renowned German composer that had influenced thousands with his music. Gustav Klimt created his Beethoven frieze for this exhibition. The work of art was originally intended to be destroyed after the exhibition. It was applied directly to the walls with light materials so that its removal would be quick and easy. The Beethoven frieze is painted along the upper half of three walls. The paintings of the walls tell a story with the left wall being the beginning and the right wall being the end. The work of art was a 34 meter long frieze and was applied onto the wall with casein paint, gold paint, chalk, and graphite on plaster. The Frieze survived because it was bought by a collector before the exhibition came to a close. The collector had it cut into 8 pieces for transportation and the Frieze was not seen for another 80 years. Later, in 1973 the Austr ian Republic bought and restored it and placed it on permanent display in the Vienna Secession Building. The first long wall of the Beethoven frieze marks the beginning of a story. It begins with a series of elongated female figures that seem to flow along the top of an empty space. Their eyes are closed and some have their arms extended in from of them as if they were trying to reach out to something. They almost seem to represent the soul’s longing for peace and tranquility. Flowing into the background of the first predominant painting. This part of the Frieze shows, a family praying or begging to a noble knight. The family is completely naked with an overlying sense of poverty and suffering. It shows the father and mother figure on their knees wit... ...e frieze find their place when they come upon a woman playing a lyre. The lyre signifies poetry and music while the woman is a muse to for the human soul. The Last portion of the frieze shows the female figures once again but their arms are no longer reaching out and their faces have a sense of satisfaction. Their bodies are curved as if dancing to the sound of music. To the right of them there is a choir of women that seem to be singing. Since the Frieze was painting for the celebration of Beethoven it is believed that the choir is singing ode to joy. In between the choir there is what seems to be an altar where a man and a woman are holding each other tightly. The sun and the moon hang on either side of the man and woman. This portion of the frieze has been titled â€Å"A kiss to the world†. Neither of their heads are visible and their feet are bound together by water