IL FREGIO STOCLET

Klimt and Mosaics

Decorative flourishes are an important part of Klimt’s works. His works were often made from several materials: glazed ceramics, semiprecious stones, and glass pastes. He notably combined these materials with gold leaf to create inlays and mosaic motifs reminiscent of Byzantine artworks. Indeed, Klimt’s passion for gold was ignited by Byzantine mosaics. He drew direct inspiration from these to form his own style and technique, which is evident in the renowned painting The Kiss.

The Stoclet Frieze

Held in the dining room of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, the Stoclet Frieze was produced between 1905 and 1909 by artisans of the Wiener Werkstätte according to Klimt’s designs. The frieze was planned by the architect Josef Hoffmann and its production was overseen by the artist Leopold Forstner, who used mixed media on carved white marble panels. This mosaic can be divided into three sections. Composed of 15 panels, it spans the two longest walls of the dining room horizontally and a third vertical wall at the end of the room. The technique used to produce the frieze combines mosaic tiles embellished with various materials: gold leaf, multi-coloured enamels, ceramics, glass, semiprecious stones, copper and coral. These contribute to blurring the separation between the subjects and the background.

The Tree of Life

At the centre stands the main subject: the Tree of Life, representing the cycle of life itself. This is a recurrent theme in art history featured, for instance, in the medieval mosaics of Otranto in Puglia, Italy. In Klimt’s version, the tree’s elegant, long branches spiral and spread around the whole space. Flowers bloom along the branches, with some resembling the eye of Horus (an Egyptian symbol of healing and protection), some shaped like butterflies and others like geometric shapes. Here and there, a black falcon is perched, another symbol of the ancient Egyptian god Horus, serving in Klimt’s work as a memento mori.

The Expectation

On the left, we find the Expectation or Dancer, an isolated woman with Egyptian traits depicted in a stoic state of expectation. She stands out thanks to the triangular shapes and sharp edges of her dress. The textile echoes the background decorations with golden spirals, triangles and stylised eyes. In this way, the Dancer is both a heroine and a decorative element connected to the rest of the frieze. The dress is composed of alternating gilded and coloured triangles. The face is a unique piece of glazed ceramic. It’s a striking, modern, stylised figure.

The Embrace

On the right, we find the Embrace or the Completion depicting two lovers holding each other tight, their bodies merged in a warm and passionate embrace. Contrasting with the Expectation’s figure made of tessellated triangles, the couple’s garments are composed of circles and plant-like motifs. These two subjects transmit a sense of serenity, as if nothing else in the world matters other than their love. The man has his back to the viewer, with his head abandoned behind that of his soulmate, who has her eyes closed. The scene lays the subjects and the viewer on two separate planes; the only connection between the two is formed by the countless eyes growing out of the tree and the couple’s clothes.

The Knight

Finally, the last figure of the frieze is that of the Knight. This abstract subject wears a white helmet and a multi-coloured cape, realised with a series of rectangles, a geometric shape that Klimt generally used to represent men. The knight is the protector of the frieze and thanks to him, the two lovers can feel safe and guarded from any possible threat.

This scene is a reworking of the embrace in the Beethoven Frieze, also located at the end of the work.