Parastone - Klimt - Ceramic Tea-light Candleholder - Three Ages of Women (1905)

Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter who became one of the founding members and president of the Vienna Secession. These artists were concerned with exploring the possibilities of art outside the confines of academic tradition. They hoped to create a new style that owed nothing to historical influence. After traveling to Venice and Ravenna, Klimt was influenced by their beautiful mosaics which most likely inspired his "Golden Period". He continued to use his innovative style and painted many oil paintings. Klimt's work "Three Ages of Women" representing the three life stages of human beings, in the two women and a baby depicted on this ceramic tea-light candleholder. Influenced by the Art Nouveau style, Klimt's three ages of woman also represents the contrasting ages of the figures through the patterns and selection of the palette. Klimt represent the old woman and emphasizes her age through earthy tones as she is looking down, while the young woman and the child are depicted with lighter tones, and lively organic patterning symbolizing the stages of bud, bloom contrasting that of decay in the old woman.