The Burgtheater Cycle of Paintings

The
Hofburgtheater, finally inaugurated in October 1888 after a prolonged
construction period, marked the completion of the mammoth Ringstraße building
project. After Gottfried Semper’s departure from Vienna in 1876 Carl Hasenauer
bore the sole responsibility for the construction work. He alone was in charge
of the details of the building’s outward appearance and of its interior
decoration. As overall coordinator he was also responsible for the choice of
artists. The highlights of the theatre’s artistic decoration are the panels
from 1886/1887 painted on the ceilings of the two state staircases flanking the
main building. The main panels, which are spread out along the central axis of
the ceiling, have theatre history as their subject. They are early works by
brothers Gustav and Ernst Klimt, and by Franz Matsch. In terms of prestige the
commission was practically without parallel at the time: after all, the work
had been commissioned by the Emperor himself. The theatre, a meeting place for
the upper reaches of society, was also an institution bathed in the limelight
of public attention. It is therefore not surprising that the work made the
young artists known to a wider public almost overnight. It was their first
great state commission and a turning point in their careers.

Altogether
there are ten autonomous paintings, one in each of the tympana that adorn the
state staircases and five in each of the two wings.

 

While
the cycle of paintings in the right staircase represents the evolution of the
theatre and three classical playwrights, the left-hand side focuses on the
themes of music, dance, medieval mystery plays and the ex-tempore stage.

 

All
the scenes depict actors together with their audiences. In keeping with the
spirit of the times the artists strove for historical accuracy, which manifests
itself in such details as clothing, etc. 

In
the staircase on the right, starting from the entrance and with the painting in
the tympanum, there is the "Altar of Dionysos", "Thespis'
Cart" (both by Gustav Klimt), "Ancient Theatre Scene" (Franz
Matsch), "Shakespeare's Globe Theatre" (Gustav Klimt), and
"Scene from Molière" (Ernst Klimt).

The painting’s subject draws on the legendary beginnings of Greek
theatre, when, as Horace would have us believe, Thespis journeyed round
Attica with a cart doubling as a stage on which to perform his plays. The
performance takes place in the right-hand half of the painting.

Thespis, wearing a long chiton, is already in full action on his cart; his face is heavily plastered with make-up to resemble a tragic mask. His eyes appear to be closed and his arms are spread in a grand gesture.

By far the most space is taken up by the spectators, by women with children in the first row and men at the back.

The groups of women and children have been composed with a view to variation.

The central panel is a
scene from Sophocles’ Antigone performed in Athens’ Theatre of Dionysos.

Three actors with masks perform on the stage, on the proscenium there is the chorus reacting in pathetic excitement, accompagnied by a flute player.

In the empty orchestra stands the sacrificial altar of Dionsysos with tripod vessel and laural wreath.

The upright woman in profile is a portrait of the acclaimed Burgtheater actress Charlotte Wolter (1834-1897).

Statue of Sophocles

From
antiquity we now move to the golden age of the theatre in Elizabethan England.
As spectators in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre we witness the scene in the
Capulets’ tomb in which a suicidal  Romeo has collapsed beside Juliet, whom he
believes to be dead.

“Romeo and Juliet”

Seated in the wings of the stage, the noblest members of the audience are following the action from close by. The female figure may very well be the Virgin Queen herself.

The pit is densely crowded with people from all walks of life, as would really have been the case in the Globe.

The gentleman whose handsome bearded face rests on a precious ruff collar deserves our special interest, as we are here face to face with Gustav Klimt’s only painted self-portrait. The young man behind him in the red doublet is Ernst, and the elegant man with a rimless hat standing between the two artist brothers is Franz Matsch.

The
next scene takes us to the court of Louis XIV, where Molière himself plays the
imaginary invalid.

On the stage the hypochondriac Argan sits in a golden dressing gown to the right of doctor Diaforius. The woman on the left dressed in white is Argan’s daughter Angélique. Klimts sister Hermine acted as model to Ernst.

The
paintings sideward the main panels were executed by Carl Joseph Geiger in the
so called “Grisaille” technique - entirely in shades of grey in imitation of
sculpture - surrounded by an eye-catching simulated golden mosaic.

Detail