The University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings were three large canvases, Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence, painted by Gustav Klimt between 1900 and 1907 after a commission in 1894 for the ceiling of the university's Great Hall. Each allegorized its faculty through dense, sensuous figure groups, including a floating mother and infant and a skeleton in Medicine and a condemned man surrounded by furies in Jurisprudence, provoking such controversy over their nudity that eighty seven faculty members protested and the dispute reached the Austrian Parliament. The paintings were never installed in the university and were destroyed in May 1945 when retreating forces set fire to Schloss Immendorf, where they had been stored.
Facts
LocationBelieved destroyed at Schloss Immendorf at the end of World War II 1 Sources
1. Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings - Wikipedia
Introduction
It is believed that all three paintings were destroyed at the end of World War II when retreating SS forces set fire to Schloss Immendorf, where they were housed
Genre reference
The University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings were three large canvases, Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence, painted by Gustav Klimt between 1900 and 1907 after a commission in 1894 for the ceiling of the university's Great Hall.
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