Oh, I love that analysis. What incredible fun.
Klimt, to me, is the merging of the old and new. His portrait work is as classical as it comes, just wrapped in the new mantle of design. That’s the match to the Sax Bach. The combination of old and new.
I desperately need to find some modernized classical pieces, but since I’m in the middle of a project now, I’m lazy about looking for something to order from Amazon. I have this vague memory that I used to have a vinyl of PDQ Bach, but when I tried to find something usable on YouTube, nothing had that clever playful updating that I thought I remembered.
As for the women - absolutely rich, though an interesting mix of also innocent young children. He seems to focus on the sexuality producing the children that are cherished. Not what I remember from Freud, who concentrated on sex for sex’s sake. Klimt is certainly talking to THIS woman. I love the sensuality. My favorites are the two Water Serpent paintings.
You’re right about the design as new — almost commercial design. And I would say that even saxes in the piece are stylized where the individuality is taken out — stylized to fit as a voice in a greater whole.
The saxes are there as a setting and Klimt’s art is the jewel in middle of the setting. The women are usually elongated, stretching up, trying to become a towering straight line. Reminds me of the Gothic Cathedrals reaching up to God, but with Klimt some women are also bent over and are showing their rear. Maybe that is their attraction too. And the flatness of the imagery is reflected in the decorative textile effects, women become stylized and flat, flat breasted too.
Yes, it is great to see the unity of the recent past with the more distant past.