Gustav Klimt, Pallas Athene, 1898
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IMAGE LIST | ACTIVITIES
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The first Secession exhibition was held in rented space, but the second took place in Olbrich's new building, and this painting was one of the works shown there.
Pallas Athene was a familiar figure in Vienna, officially adopted as a symbol by the parliament. This, however, is not the coolly detached goddess of classical art, embodying an ideal of harmony and balance. Instead, Klimt's Athene, flashing-eyed as Homer described her, seems to come from an older stratum, to have a deeper and more mysterious, even unsettling, power. The familiar face of the goddess has been transformed, as one contemporary critic said, into a "demon of the Secession."
This Athene draws on an alternative, even subversive, view of ancient art. Art nouveau artists were inspired by the art and history of the past, but they took it with a new set of expectations. The old view of ancient Greek culture -- entailing rationality, clarity, moderation, and order -- was under revision. A new picture was emerging that had been recently expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche in the Birth of Tragedy (1871). Nietzsche drew attention to two contrasting aspects of Greek culture, which he termed the Apollonian and the Dionysian. Coexisting with the calm rationality and moderation of Apollo, god of light, was the irrational nature of the wine god Dionysus and his followers. In their drunken revelries were expressed darker psychic forces: eros, violence, and madness. And these anxieties had currency for the modern world.
Athene had appeared on the Secession's first poster, also designed by Klimt. She alluded to the group's heroic struggles to promote a new artistic originality and quality. Athene usually holds a small Nike, or figure of Victory. But Klimt instead has her support a waiflike young woman holding a mirror in which modern man will see his own reflection.
The painting's frame was designed by Klimt and made by his brother.
Learning Activities
Art
• Research Byzantine mosaics from Ravenna and consider their decorative influence on Klimt.
Humanities
• Compose a dramatic monologue in which Klimt's Athene speaks to the artist.
Social Science
• Identify subversive use of traditional symbols in modern culture -- by artists, musicians, protest groups, etc.