03 — ARTWORK
The Death and the Maiden
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas, 150 x 180 cm
- TYPE
- Mythological
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 1100 × 931 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Transience and death are existential themes that Schiele repeatedly dares to tackle - here linked to a biographical episode. It shows a couple, a young woman clinging to her lover with both arms. The man is a self-portraitThe Roman portrait bust survived in the form of life-sized reliquaries of saints, but it was in 15th century Florence that the individual features and character of a contemporary sitter were accurately recorded by sculptors such as Donatello, Desiderio da Settignano, Mino da Fiesole and the Rossellino. A similar degree of realism occurs in 15th century tomb sculpture. The equestrian portrait, based on antique statues such as the Marcus Aurelius monument (Rome, Campidoglio), was revived in the 14th century. Two examples in fresco are Simone Martini's Guidoriccio (c. 1328; Siena, Palazzo Pubblico) and the posthumous portrait of Sir John Hawkwood (1436; Florence, Cathedral) by Uccello, which gives the illusion of a 3-dimensional statue seen from below. The Venetian Republic ordered imposing monuments from Donatello (1447; Gattarnelata, Padua) and Verrocchio (14799; Colleoni, Venice), whilst other statesmen ordered their own images to be erected in public places, directly relating themselves to the military heroes of ancient Rome. Another form of political portraiture derived from antiquity was the commemorative portrait medal designed by artists such as Pisanello. The carved or painted profile portrait became popular in the 1450s. The realism of the clear, flattened image, painted under the influence of Flemish examples by the Pollaiuolo brothers, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli, was superseded by the three-quarter and frontal portrait, psychologically more complex, such as Leonardo's enigmatic Mona Lisa (Paris, Louvre) with her momentary smile or Andrea del Sarto's arresting Portrait of a Man (London, National Gallery). The 16th century portrait became generalized, Lotto's Andrea Odoni (1527; Royal Collection) being an idealized concept of a collector rather than an individual. Group portraits, decorating whole rooms, include the narrative scenes of the Gonzaga court painted by Mantegna (completed 1474; Mantua, Palazzo Ducale) and the elaborate schemes commissioned by the Farnese family in Rome from Vasari (1546; Palazzo della Cancelleria) and Salviati (after 1553; Palazzo Farnese). Portraits were also incorporated into religious narratives, as in Ghirlandaio's fresco cycle painted for Giovanni Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, Florence (1486-90). of Schiele; his gaze goes nowhere. The fragile equilibrium - indicated by the unstable posture of the two - seems to shatter at any moment. The girl is his long-time partner and model Wally Neuzil, whom he left to marry the middle-class Edith Harms. After the separation, Neuzil trained as a nurse and died of scarlet fever in 1917 while serving in the war.
This painting is also referred to as Embracing Figures (Verschlungene Menschen). The woman's buttocks, originally bare, were supposedly painted over at Arthur Roessler's instigation.
The painting is signed and dated top right: EGON / SCHIELE / 1915.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r78c9422aa1cbf8,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {The Death and the Maiden by SCHIELE, Egon},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/schiele-egon-rcab8dbff221d9b/the-death-and-the-maiden-r78c9422aa1cbf8},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
