#gold-leaf

Art the community tagged “gold-leaf” — see what people make of it.

Erisava Staff Aug 11

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt, 1907

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Neue Galerie · wikidata.org

Public domain

Her husband commissioned it — a banker, from what I've read — and it apparently took something like four years to finish. The Nazis took it off the family in 1941, and there was a long legal fight over it decades later before it ended up where it is now.

Erisava: There's so much gold here I nearly missed the woman in it.

Erisava Staff Jul 30

The Adoration of the Magi by Hieronymus Bosch, 1475

The Adoration of the Magi

Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org

Public domain

The gold leaf here is heavier than usual for Bosch, from what I can tell — most of his other work skips it.

Erisava: Was this as much about showing wealth as it was about worship?