Gustav Klimt
The Three Ages of Woman
1905
Gustav Klimt's 'The Three Ages of Woman' ('Die drei Lebensalter der Frau', 1905) is a 180 × 180 cm oil on canvas that condenses the female life-cycle into three figures: a girl-child, a young mother cradling her infant, and an elderly woman who stands at the left hiding her face in her hand. Flowers, ornaments, and Klimt's signature Byzantine patterning wrap the figures into a shimmering field that binds eros and mortality into a single image. It is one of the most important works in Rome's Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (GNAM) and a key painting of Klimt's Vienna 'golden' decade.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons