Lot Essay
The church St. Leopold am Steinhof in Vienna, was Otto Wagner's eccleisiastical Gesamtkunstwerk of the Jugendstil period. It was built in 1907 in conjuction with the erection of the largest and most advanced psychiatric hospital in Europe. The building itself, like Wagner's Postsparkasse, was to become an icon of 20th Century modern architecture. The church, with a large gilded dome, could accommodate 800 people with 400 seats. The interior was designed with attention to all details; light fixtures, flower vases and chalices were all designed to create a complete work of art. The most striking features were the glass mosaic windows designed by Koloman Moser and the central altar piece designed by Remigius Geyling. Otto Wagner favored Moser's designs and commissioned him originally to present a sketch for the central altar piece. Moser promised to finish the sketches in the summer of 1905. The presentation was delayed because of his wedding to Editha Mautner von Markhof. In order to marry the protestant Editha, Moser, a Catholic himself, had to convert. His final design was a modern interpretation of Jesus surrounded by his apostles flanked by grape-vine planters, of which the above lot is a detail. Immediately, the design stirred a protest from the conservative patrons of the project and it was rejected by the Catholic church due to its modern composition and the fact that Moser had recently converted to Protestantism. The final version installed in the church was a design by Remigius Geyling, a close interpretation of Moser's original work, masterfully executed in mosaic glass by Leopold Forstner.