Near the Naschmarkt, Vienna's largest and most popular market, the iconic Secession Building represents Vienna's entry into modernity.
At the end of the 19th century, Vienna rivalled Paris as the capital of culture and research. However, a group of young artists believed there was a need for the arts to move on from the eclectic and solemn style so dear to the Emperor Franz Joseph. This prompted Gustav Klimt to found the "Secession" movement. Although the name may have sounded controversial in an empire that was struggling to control the desire for independence of the various nations comprising it, it signified above all a departure from the traditional teaching of the Academies of Fine Art: the movement did not aspire to rebellion, but appealed to the tastes of the upper middle class, with elegant and expensive paintings and decorative art objects that placed the emphasis on technical skill and fine materials.
Klimt's refined painting style is replete with references to the past, but it is also loaded with messages and allusions.
A short distance from the austere official buildings of the Ring, the architect Joseph Olbrich built this white mansion, intended to house periodic exhibitions of artists adhering to the Secession movement. The prominent feature on the regular surfaces is the perforated gold metal dome, made to Klimt's design to resemble intertwined laurel leaves. On the front door is the inscription "to each time its art / to art its freedom".
The interior still hosts exhibitions dedicated to contemporary artists, but it is best known as the home of the monumental panels of the Beethoven Frieze, the decoration by Klimt dating to 1902.
Klimt's paintings cover the walls of a huge 34-meter-long room in the basement. The artist symbolically interpreted the sensations awakened by the Ninth Symphony, with the ultimate victory of music and harmony over brutality and ignorance.
Let me leave you with an interesting fact: do you know how the building - characterized by a dome covered with laurel leaves covered with gold foil - is popularly nicknamed by the Viennese? "The Golden Cabbage"! Perhaps they got the idea from the fruit and vegetables of the nearby market?
