Most visitors overlook Gustav Klimt’s presence at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Hidden in the grand staircase are his early allegorical paintings — created with his brother and Franz Matsch — long before the golden shimmer of The Kiss.

Last Sunday at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, I set out to find overlooked works rather than the usual Rembrandts and Rubens. A small Titian, Christ and the Adulteress, drew me in with its quiet intensity — but it was an unexpected encounter with Isabella d’Este’s portrait that truly followed me home.