Beethoven Frieze (view of the room)

Discouraged by the storm of public protest which greeted his paintings for the Aula of Vienna University, Klimt laid aside work on this increasingly unrewarding commission to devote himself to his only true fresco, his Beethoven Frieze (1902; Secession Building, Vienna; restored 1985). Painted for the 14th Secession exhibition (1902), the frieze was intended as part of the group’s homage to the Leipzig artist Max Klinger, whose polychrome sculpture, the Beethoven Monument (Museum der Bildenden K�nste, Leipzig), formed the centrepiece of the show.

The centre wall (The Hostile Powers, the Titan Typhoeus, the Three Gorgons) was conceived as a pictorial paraphrase of the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and depicted the struggle for happiness undertaken by a knight in armour who, vanquishing the ‘hostile powers’ (the giant Typhon, the three Gorgons, disease, insanity and death), leads ‘weak humanity’ into the realm of the arts.

The left longitudinal wall shows female figures gliding along horizontally. This part of the frieze is referred to in the Beethoven exhibition catalogue as “Die Sehnsucht nach dem Gl�ck” (The Longing for Happiness). An upright nude woman and a similarly nude kneeling couple are the first figures that the floating figures meet. According to the exhibition catalogue, these three figures symbolize “Die Leiden der schwachen Menschheit” (The Suffering of Weak Mankind). The “Suffering of Weak Mankind” group turns pleadingly towards a knight, the “Wohlger�steten Starken” (Knight in Shining Armor), who stands before them. Behind the golden knight appear two allegorical female characters, who are referred to in the catalogue as “Ehrgeiz” (Ambition)” and “Mitleid” (Compassion).

On the right longitudinal wall, the “Sehns�chte und W�nsche der Menschheit” (Longings and Desires of Mankind) return as a horizontal floating procession and move on until they are stopped by the lonely figure of “Poetry”. On the final section of this wall, a vertical group of crouching women, called “Die K�nste” (The Arts), reach from floor to ceiling like a living pillar. It leads to the “Chor der Paradiesesengel” (Choir of Angels from Paradise), which corresponds to Beethoven’s closing chorus of Schiller’s “Ode an die Freude” (Ode to Joy). In the exhibition catalogue, Klimt’s female choir is characterized as follows: “The arts lead us into the ideal kingdom, which is the only place we can find pure joy, pure happiness, and pure love. ‘Joy, thy purest spark divine, this kiss to all the world’.” His pictorial representation of the “kiss to all the world” manifests itself in the form of an embracing naked couple, which also signals the climax and finale of the frieze.

The Beethoven Frieze is on permanent display in the Vienna Secession Building in a specially built, climate-controlled basement room. Klimt’s working drawings, which specify the use of enamel, gold inlay and coloured glass, are in the �sterreichisches Museum f�r Angewandte Kunst, Vienna.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor op. 67 (1st mvt)