The Maiden is a painting by the Austrian artist
Gustav Klimt, completed in 1913. It depicts seven interlaced women, each woman representing a particular stage of life. The painting touches on various topics of human life, such as love, sexuality and regeneration, depicted in a cyclical shape. The virgin's gown with its many spirals of blue and purple metaphorically indicates fertility, continual change and the evolution of the universe.
The Maiden was one of Klimt's last paintings before he died and is in the collection of the
National Gallery Prague in the Czech Republic.
Painting credit: Gustav Klimt