Reserching On The Influences Of Byzantine Mosaic Art On Klimt's Painting Styles

At the end of 19 th century, the second industrial revolution brings radical change s to European countries. As an Austrian symbolist painter, Gustav Klimt is a distingu ished leader of Vienna Secession living in this time. With his unique form of expressi on, exotic characteristics of aesthetics and profound spiritual contents, Klimt becomes a focus of world attention.Klimt's painting styles vary in different creation stages, which are affected by cla ssical realism, the Byzantine Mosaic art, Chinese traditional art elements and Japan's Ukiyo-e respectively. Notably, under the influence of Byzantine Mosaic art, Klimt de velops his painting style of “ Painted Mosaic ” by combining techniques of panting and frescoes, applying expensive materials like paillette, glass, feather, coral and agat e to his painting, and adopting techniques like embossed painting, inlaying and stippli ng. With the development of society, more eastern artistic elements were introduced i nto Europe and lots of artists were affected, hence Klimt's creation reached his stage of oriental style.This paper mainly focuses on the influence Byzantine mosaic art has on Klimt's painting styles in his middle and late creation, and analyzes from the aspects like paint ing expression, aesthetic features and spiritual contents.