It is a work that is certainly worth the trip. For Gustav Klimt’s “Nuda Veritas” is not only one of the Viennese artist’s masterpieces, but also a painting that intrigues – and then challenges – the viewer. It prompts reflections that go beyond mere admiration of the work. This is a truly exceptional opportunity to stand face to face with this sensational painting, which, from 21 May to 6 September, is on display at Villa Manin in Passariano (Udine) in an exhibition organised by the Regional Agency for Cultural Heritage of Friuli Venezia Giulia – ERPAC FVG – in collaboration with MondoMostre, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Theatermuseum in Vienna. The exhibition is curated by Cäcilia Bischoff.

The painting depicts a naked woman, her nudity deliberately displayed, even brazen, totally different from the depictions of female nudes of the time. This is a self-assured woman who faces the gaze of those who judge her, without fearing it. ‘Nuda Veritas’, ‘with her wild curls and her wicked, fanatical mouth’, was painted by Gustav Klimt in 1899. It is an oil on canvas, measuring 252 x 56.2 cm, housed in Vienna at the Österreichisches Theatermuseum.

The orange glow of the curls and pubic hair stands out against the white body, drawing the eye. But it is a display intended not to captivate the senses but the intellect. For truth is powerful; it commands attention, almost the stage. And no one can keep it hidden.

The eye is then drawn to the mirror she holds, not turned towards herself but towards the viewer: an invitation to reflect; almost a defiant gesture. The gaze extends to a pearly, iridescent sky, to the snake winding its way up the woman’s leg, to the plump magnolia blossoms… Nothing here is random; it feels as though we are witnessing—perhaps unable to fully decipher it—a powerful, vital coded message. Klimt did not paint a ‘nude’ in the guise of an allegory, but rather painted an allegory in the guise of nudity. Truth is a precarious construct. Strangely indecisive and lacking in contours. Ambivalent and ambiguous, yet even the indistinct night has its qualities, for ‘darkness not only veils things, but can also protect and conceal them’. The composition, resembling a column that almost touches the figure’s feet and head, is framed by two gilded panels bearing inscriptions. The snake rises from the frame, close to the viewer and at the centre of the composition, climbing over the lower panel bearing the inscription “Nuda Veritas”. With its steel-blue body outlined in black and piercing eyes, the reptile moves away from us, wraps itself around the woman’s calves and then returns in our direction. Two dandelion heads serve as luminous points of light. The inscription on the upper panel reads: “Kannst du nicht allen gefallen durch deine that und dein kunstwerk = mach es wenigen recht. vielen gefallen ist schlimm. Schiller.”

(“If you cannot please everyone with your art and your artistic work = please a few. To please many is wrong. Schiller.”)

Although dated 1899, Klimt painted this masterpiece in 1898, and in March 1899 the work was included in the fourth exhibition of the Secession.

The exhibition is organised across four rooms, allowing visitors to engage with Klimt’s masterpiece through an introduction to the historical and artistic context of the Vienna Secession. Furthermore, the painting is accompanied by a graphic illustration of the same subject for the Ver Sacrum calendar and by reproductions of comparative works such as, by Klimt himself, ‘Ancient Egyptian Art’ and ‘Athena Pallas’, alongside Hans Makart’s ‘The Sense of Sight’ and Olin L. Warner Herbert Adams’ ‘Truth with Mirror and Serpent’, a bronze sculpture from the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington. Of particular interest is the dialogue between Klimt’s work and the fresco by the Parisian painter Louis Dorigny, located in the Sala di Flora at Villa Manin. Although not directly connected and separated by time, the two artists offer conceptually harmonious reflections on fundamental questions of human existence.

‘The presence of *Nuda Veritas* at Villa Manin makes it possible to establish a dialogue between this uncompromising reflection on truth and a place which, in historical terms, also marks a paradigm shift.

Former residence of the last Doge of Venice and Napoleon’s headquarters, the villa was the setting for the Treaty of Campoformio, which marked the end of the Venetian Republic and redrew the political balance of Europe: a place of memories and a threshold space, now transformed into an exhibition venue.” Mario Anzil, Councillor for Culture of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Moebius.