The Kiss (Klimt)

A couple kneels entwined on a flowering meadow, wrapped together in a single shimmering robe of gold leaf and ornament, the man bending to press his lips to the woman's upturned cheek as she yields in bliss. Gustav Klimt covers the lovers in dazzling pattern - rectangles for him, circles for her - against a radiant gold ground. Now in the Belvedere in Vienna, the Kiss is the supreme icon of his golden style and of Art Nouveau itself - love transfigured into glittering, decorative splendor, two figures fused into a single jewel-like emblem of desire.