vince’s ear

Valentine’s Day is upon us and what better way to celebrate than with a powerful visual reminder that love and life will not last forever, and that every living creature will some day die. Our days are numbered and the Grim Reaper waits patiently. And trading Valentine’s Day cards with pictures of trains on them that say “I choo choo choose you” will be the furthest from his mind.

“Death and Life” by Gustav Klimt

#7 in the 10 scariest paintings is one of Gustav Klimt’s most famous works, aside from The Kiss and Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which to date is the highest selling painting at auction. Death and Life is a masterpiece of juxtaposition, or placing two opposite things side by side. It’s appropriate use of warm and cool colors allows the viewer to feel the respective temperatures, thus giving us an uneasy mood.

The huddled group of the living rests peacefully in each other’s arms, warm with the beautiful quilts of pink, orange and yellow, with flowers and pretty patterns. This is a true representation of humanity with all stages of life present with men, women, and children. They huddle close for protection from the cruel world around them. For the time being they are safe, with no worries. But unbeknown to this peaceful sleeping family is the presence of an uninvited visitor, whose slim and ghostly form is but an arm’s length away.

This harbinger of doom knows the death knell can ring for any or all of these people at any moment. Its perpetually smiling skull watches, unresting, and holds ghastly inhuman vigil. In this painting it wears a dark cold cloak akin to a graveyard with crosses showing an infinite amount of tick marks for each of its victims.

Klimt makes excellent use of space here with huddled organic mass of life crowding together in the small space, giving our eyes a never ending spectacle of form and pattern and flesh. Interestingly, the background was first laid with gold leaf, but the artist later painted over it, thus giving us a much bigger contrast between Life and their surroundings, including the impending doom bringer to the left.

It is truly a superb work of macabre art, and an excellent representation of Death. The way the dark skeleton holds the club as it holds vigil over the people reminds me of Judith Leyster’s The Last Drop, where a carefree drunken duo party into the night, as a skeleton gladly counts down to the drinker’s demise, holding in its bony fingers an hourglass. Both paintings are akin to the Danse Macabre of the Middle Ages, where death lurked around every corner and truly danced among the living in ever-inopportune times and places.

So huddle up in your quilts and enjoy it, while you can.

An unwanted guest can stop by at any moment, and he won’t be bringing chocolates.

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