Vienna Secession Building — Gold Dome Close Study
179.01 €
The Secession Building in Vienna close study — the gilded laurel leaf dome (nicknamed the ‘golden cabbage’ by Viennese) photographed from below at an angle that shows the full dome hemisphere against a pure blue autumn sky.
Description
The Vienna Secession Building — built in 1897 by Joseph Maria Olbrich for the Vienna Secession artists’ movement and housing the Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt — is identified by its extraordinary filigree dome of 2,500 gilded laurel leaves and berries, nicknamed the ‘golden cabbage’ (Krauthappel) by local Viennese. The dome’s architectural detail rewards close photography: each leaf section is individually fabricated and the dome’s surface is never a flat gold but a texture of overlapping forms. This image was made from the Friedrichstraße pavement directly north of the building at 11am in October when the golden dome is in direct sun and the sky behind has the deep autumn blue that maximises the colour contrast. Shot on a 200mm telephoto at f/8 from a position that crops the building’s facade below the dome’s spring, the full dome hemisphere is in the frame against pure sky with the dome’s Latin inscription ‘Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit’ readable in the frieze below.
