Cardinal and Nun
The painting depicts a cardinal and a nun kneeling on their knees. The cardinal’s red cape cascades around their bodies. Schiele tackles the problem of splitting space into geometric area which was then the current topic of interest for the international avant-garde artists. Two-dimensional shapes present a contrast to the unclothed body parts which are portrayed in detail in three dimensions. Schiele may have been influenced by French Cubism, with which he probably came in close touch during his contacts with the Galerie Goltz in Munich. However, Schiele did not consider the mutilfarious variation of Cubist shape and the surface disintegrations central to Cubism’s theory; he used them as a means for dramatic expression of the subjective state of the figures depicted.