#gold #klimt #hygeia #medicine
Gustav Klimt (1862–1918), The Faculty of Medicine (detail of Hygeia) (series for the Great Hall) (1907), oil on canvas, 430 x 300 cm, destroyed by fire in 1945. Wikimedia Commons.

This colour detail of Hygeia gives a small impression of how wonderful the painting must have appeared, with its rich colors and extensive gold leaf. The serpent is the snake of Asclepius, and the cup which she is holding is that of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness in the underworld.