Focus on Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings and explain the Medicine.
Medicine was the second painting, presented in March 1901 at the tenth Secession Exhibition. It featured a column of semi-nude figures on the right hand side of the painting, representing the river of life. Beside it was a young nude female who floated in space, with a newborn infant at her feet, representing life. A skeleton represented death in the river of life. The only link between the floating woman and the river of bodies is two arms, the woman's and a man's as seen from behind. At the bottom of the painting Hygieia stood with the Aesculapian snake around her arm and the cup of Lethe in her hand, turning her back to mankind. Klimt conveyed an ambiguous unity of life and death, with nothing to celebrate the role of medicine or the science of healing. Upon display of the painting in 1901, Klimt was attacked by critics. An editorial in the Medizinische Wochenschrift complained that the painter had ignored doctors' two main achievements, prevention and cure. For a rough composition draft of the painting see here.
snake Hygieia right prevention skeleton Lethe infant Aesculapian cure