On the banks of the Danube lies a city whose artistic and intellectual heritage precedes its fame. We are located in Vienna, this is where the influence of personalities such as Mozart, Beethoven and Sigmunt Freud, who lived in the city, forever changed the past and present of Austria's capital.
Imperial palaces such as Schönbrunn, the summer residence of the Habsburgs, the MuseumsQuartier area, home to historic and contemporary buildings where works by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and other artists are displayed, is the setting for an elegant and sophisticated city, sometimes even a little snobbish, but extremely lively and lively.
Moving towards the south of the historic center, we come across one of the most majestic and evocative buildings of all time. This is Belvedere Castle, one of the most beautiful princely residences in Europe. The complex, commissioned by Prince Eugene of Savoy, consists of two splendid palaces, the Upper Belvedere and the Lower Belvedere. built according to a design by the architect Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt between 1720 and 1723.
After being in the possession of the Habsburgs, who made the castle their summer residence, today the building has become the headquarters of the Austrian art gallery. Inside are preserved some of the greatest masterpieces of European art and, among them, Klimt's magical and evocative kiss.
The lower Belvedere is connected to the upper one through a splendid garden that offers a beautiful panoramic view of Vienna from above. Then you enter the building and the collection of Austrian art begins. The works of local artists, in the internal rooms of the building, are flanked by masterpieces by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Cézanne.
And then, here it is the same way as a precious treasure to protect and cherish We found The Kiss. That work by Gustav Klimt that is for the Belvedere what the Mona Lisa represents for the Louvre.
In the center of an ethereal, magical and abstract place, two lovers embrace and abandon each other in an intense and romantic kiss. The woman, with her eyes closed and in a position of ecstasy, is totally abandoned in the arms of her lover who, in turn, gently caresses her head.
An idyllic love that is not broken even by the lively polychrome of the flowery meadow. Gustav Klimt, in this work, wants celebrate love and human passions, themes already recurring throughout his work. However, it is only in this painting that the artist manages, through painting, to tell that story. transcendental moment in which man and woman abandon each other in mutual ecstasy.
Klimt deserves credit for starting what is known as the Viennese secession, that artistic movement that definitively broke the rigid traditions of the country. It was the beginning of the 20th century and the Austrian painter was painting works destined to become masterpieces of eternal beauty. The kiss is among these.
