The Hydra

The Hydra is a preparatory design for the Beethoven Frieze, which Klimt created for the 14th Vienna Secession Exhibition in 1902, a landmark event organised around Max Klinger's polychrome sculpture of Beethoven. The frieze ran along three walls of the upper gallery and depicted, in allegorical terms, humanity's yearning for happiness overcoming hostile forces. The Hydra — the multi-headed serpentine monster of Greek mythology — appears in the frieze as one of the hostile powers ranged against the Beethoven figure, alongside Sickness, Madness, and Death. This parchment work in the Belvedere represents Klimt's working through of that monstrous form in a medium lighter and more improvisational than the casein-on-stucco of the frieze itself. The Beethoven Frieze was intended as a temporary installation but was preserved by the collector Carl Reininghaus; it now resides permanently in the Secession building. The Hydra motif allowed Klimt to combine his interest in sinuous organic form with the symbolic weight of classical mythology. Its placement in the frieze as an obstacle to transcendence reflects the Wagnerian cultural framework within which the Secession read Beethoven — artistic striving as heroic combat against base materialism.

Executed on parchment, a lighter and more direct support than canvas, using a combination of paint and drawn line. The serpentine body is rendered with sinuous contour lines that emphasise the decorative potential of the monster's form. Klimt's draughtsmanship is visible more directly here than in finished paintings, with preparatory line showing through thin paint layers.