Details from Gustav Klimt's The Kiss (1908)

The beginning question was this.
Why should we look at paintings the way they are presented?

The important concept to grasp is that when we look at a painting on our screens, we are looking at an image of the painting, not the painting itself. And, we can do so much with the image that we cannot do with the original painting. We can resize it, crop it, rotate it, flip it, superimpose other things on it, warp it, and etc. There are vast majority of operations we can take so that our creative minds can experience and interact with the painting.

In case you did not have chance to look at every details of this great painting by Gustav Klimt, I am presenting you magnified details of the painting. Then, we're going to look at the full painting in the end.

It's amazing what a concept of scale can do. Each cropped piece has unique and special qualities of details, and it allows views like us to observe details of the details. I am going to continue on this series so that we can form a new perspective and method of experiencing paintings.

Absolutely stunning. The blush, the touch.. do you see the top of her fingers softly holding the man's hand?
Let's look at the details of the man's clothes.

Rigid but soft. "Cropping" around the man's robe allows us to render it as if we are looking at a magnified photograph of the real robe, thanks to the details on canvas fabric. Materials working with universal composition.. sounds like an architecture to me.

Let's look at the woman's elements.

Her hand, softly hugging the man's neck.

Let's take a look at their elements, cropped together.

Golden background with dancing compositions... independent yet harmonious, unique yet consistent.

How would leaving the man alone look like?

To me, this looked very lonely. Independent existence pushed by a vast strip of space.

Now that we explored details, let's look at the whole image of the painting.

Source: The Kiss - Gustav Klimt
I hope you enjoyed a new way to explore details of paintings.

I am going to continue posting series of paintings details, so follow me and let's explore together in fresh perspectives.