Altar of Dionysus

• Study for the Staircase Mural of the Burgtheater
• Gustav Klimt (1862–1918)
• 1886
• Oil on canvas
• Leopold Museum, Vienna

This is a draft for one of the tympana over the two grand staircases at the new Burgtheater. The completed tympana each measured twelve meters long. Two female followers of the god of wine, Dionysus, called maenads, are positioned at each side of the god’s bust at his altar. As the revelries surrounding Dionysus were considered the historic root of the theater tradition in ancient Greece, Klimt decided to depict this scene to reference to the history of the theater in Europe. He was awarded the prestigious Emperor’s Prize for the finished work.