The Quattrocento in Rome and in Venice

Before there was a scandalous Klimt, there was a very reliable one. In 1890 and 1891, still in his twenties, Gustav Klimt worked with his brother Ernst and their partner Franz Matsch decorating the grand staircase of Vienna's new Kunsthistorisches Museum. Their task was to fill the awkward triangular spaces above the arches with figures standing for the history of art, and this one represents the Quattrocento, the Italian 15th century. To fit the narrow spandrel Klimt curved a single slender figure along the arch, gilded and precise, in exactly the polished historical manner the imperial museum wanted, a decade before he would help break away and found the Secession. He and his partners painted the panels on canvas in the studio, then glued them straight onto the staircase walls, where they remain.