I love the juxtaposition of Gustav Klimt's Death and Life. How complex and beautiful it is. It has been mentioned that the asymmetrical balance dramatizes the opposition between life and death. It is so true and yet an abundance more.
The Leopold Museum, where this masterpiece hangs, has told us that it "features not a personal death but rather merely an allegorical Grim Reaper who gazes at 'life' with a malicious grin". What if, however, we were to look at it, keeping asymmetrical balance in mind, as if it were one person's life? Here's a brief summary of how I would describe it.
There is so much on the right (or life) side of the painting that would pull at her(the woman on the left who gazes at death), wanting her to stay. It is soft and gentle. Tenderness is evident and almost palpable as your eyes set on each embrace. You can perceive how much love there was in her life.
On the left (or death) side, the area is smaller and darker, but doesn't leave me with a sense of evil, just perhaps, the unknown. Even what is described as "death markers" on Death's proverbial cloak, has a sense of peace to it. Yes. I believe the skeleton (the most chilling piece) was necessary to demonstrate that she was facing death, but it also draws you upward, as you could visually follow her on her final ascent. The right side's gentle pull left toward death and upward toward the heavens is symbolic to me, in that ultimately her family will follow in her path and they will be reunited in eternity.
Deutsch Title: „Tod und Leben”
English Title: Death and Life
Medium: Painting
Date: 1910/15
Dimensions- Height: 1,805 mm (71.06 in). Width: 2,005 mm (78.94 in). Location: Leopold Museum
Source Photographer: YgFW0Kwjd_ptXQ at Google Cultural Institute (Public Domain)