Gustav Klimt und die Medizin

D. Schultheiss

The art nouveau painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), a cofounder of the Vienna Secession movement, was commissioned in 1894 to prepare three ceiling paintings for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna portraying the faculties of "Philosophy," "Medicine," and "Jurisprudence." After the first public presentations of these paintings starting in 1900 fierce protests erupted since the artist had not painted a historical allegory but rather had created a modern symbolic picture in the Secessionism style. The controversy over the so-called faculty paintings escalated to the point that in 1905 Klimt irrevocably distanced himself from the commission and bought back his pictures from the state. The paintings were later purchased by the Austrian Gallery and in 1943 placed in storage in Lower Austria at the Immendorf Castle where they were destroyed by a fire in May 1945 when the German troops withdrew. Besides Klimt's preliminary sketches, only black and white photographs of the three paintings now exist as well as a color reproduction of the section depicting Hygieia from the "Medicine" painting. Due to the public rejection of the faculty paintings, Gustav Klimt broke away from official government-commissioned art and focused on private clients from among Viennese society. One of these intensive associations was with the anatomist Emil Zuckerkandl and his wife Berta, who was very active in cultural affairs. During the dispute over the faculty paintings, Zuckerkandl was one of the few university professors who signed a petition in favor of retaining the paintings. His brother, the industrialist Victor Zuckerkandl, was one of the major collectors and patrons of Secessionist art. The third brother, the well-known urologist Otto Zuckerkandl (1861-1921), president of the Second and Third Congresses of the German Society of Urology in 1909 and 1911, was also in close contact with Klimt. A portrait of his wife Amalie was a work in progress between 1913 and 1917, but it remained unfinished.