Allegory of Sculpture

In 1889 the Imperial Austrian Museum of Art and Industry in Vienna, today's MAK, celebrated its 25th anniversary, and the School of Applied Arts attached to it marked the date with a lavish presentation volume. About 40 of the school's professors, teachers and former students each contributed an original work, and the book was dedicated to Archduke Rainer, the school's patron. Klimt, a former student, gave this watercolour with touches of gold. Sculpture appears as a young nude woman lifting a small figure of Victory with a laurel wreath, balanced on a globe. Behind her stand famous pieces of ancient sculpture, the colossal head known as the Juno Ludovisi, a bust of Athena Parthenos, and in dark bronze the Boy with a Thorn. Eight years later Klimt drew the same subject again for the publisher Martin Gerlach and broke up this antique look. Here, at the upper right, he lettered his name and the year in Roman capitals.