This was Klimt’s first painting with a music theme. Before 1895, Klimt’s art style was conservative, and had 3D forms. However, he started to break away from these traditions, and turned the mode to make a visual contrast between 3D human figures and 2D patterns. This was a milestone for his new art style. Music 1 was painted in the early style of the Art Nouveau in the late 19th century.
Music 1 was influenced by Ancient Greek art. A female musician, instruments and a sphinx are the themes of this painting. This attempt was not very harmonic, as the pattern lacks coherency. Most of his works showed realistic and parallel universe in 2D and 3D respectively. In his mature work, The Kiss, emphasized 3D form and 2D patterns clearly. But, Music 1 does not show these borders.
The lyre represents music. Around the lyre, there are lots of the abstract music symbols, depicted as beads jumping out the lyre from the musician’s performance. The flowers near the sphinx make the work in andante tone, which is joyful and peaceful in the dark background. The congestion of the music symbols was like an allegro in a dream. The small trumpet is the instrument to help the lyre in the performance.
Joyce