Rudolf Steiner’s architectural masterpiece, the double-domed building, the first
Goetheanum, featured decorated ceilings designed and partly painted by Steiner
himself, using vegetable colors and a new layering technique. He emphasized that
he was looking for a new artistic concept based on consciously understanding
the nature of color. Contemporaries reported the extraordinary effect of the
domed ceiling paintings combined with the multicolored light coming through
the engraved colored-glass windows.

The cupolas depicted the creation and ages of the world, the initiators of the
various cultural epochs, and the figure of Christ. Tragically, the first
Goetheanum—the “complete work of art”—was destroyed by fire on New Year’s
Eve 1922. Thus, today we can get only an impression of the lost paintings and
windows from Steiner’s pastel sketches and drawings, as well as a handful
of photographs.

In this lavish volume—the result of decades of research and study—Hilde Raske
provides a detailed examination of the artistic work on the two cupolas,
including Steiner’s draft sketches and his written and verbal statements.
Featuring 30 color and more than 100 black-and-white illustrations, this
edition presents a high-quality facsimile of the long out-of-print original edition of 1983.