‘Hygieia’ detail from ‘Medicine’ by G. Klimt
Hygieia, daughter of the God of medicine Asclepius, part of his cult and from whom the word hygiene is derived, is depicted here with her fathers snake on one arm and a cup of lethe (oblivion) in the other hand.
The painting was part of three commissioned by the University of Vienna for the ceiling of their great hall. Once completed and unveiled, they were rejected as pornographic and perverse by the conservative critics and university faculty of fin de siecle Vienna, and were not displayed. One of the trio ‘Philosophy’ (the other is ‘Jurisprudence’), won the gold medal at the Worlds Fair in Paris and the paintings were passed around different owners, eventually ending up with a Jewish family from whom they were taken and burnt by retreating SS forces. I bloody love it, I think I know girls that look like this, shame the painting doesn’t exist anymore.
Click through for the iklimt tour, great introduction to the work of Gustav Klimt.