Home/Symbols/Gold squares/rectanglesGold squares/rectangles SymbolismOrder, modern design, and mosaic-like luxury; echoes Byzantine tesserae and Klimt’s ornamental language.Common ThemesThe divine & the sacredThe modern lens: urban life & speedMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Originality, authorship, and appropriationGender & sexualityFashion & adornmentLabor & workArtworks Featuring This SymbolEmilie FlögeGustav Klimt (1902)Gustav Klimt’s Emilie Flöge stages a modern identity as a work of <strong>design</strong> as much as portraiture: a columnar figure, hand on hip, radiates self-possession within a field of spirals, dots, and gold squares. The circular, flowered fan behind the head acts as a <strong>modern halo</strong>, collapsing depth and elevating presence in the Secessionist spirit of the <strong>Gesamtkunstwerk</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
