Gluttony/"Metropolis"
Dix’s painting highlights the lack of limits and excess that also characterized the Weimar republic. While inflation dramatically limited the poor and lower middle class, the rich remained privileged to have nights like these, separating themselves from the poor and disadvantaged. The center frame is so packed, and physically separate from the flanking panels, that the characters physically cannot see beyond themselves. Thus, the disparity becomes self-perpetuating.
The sense of fullness, through the use of color, composition, and the appearances of the figures themselves, shows how central gluttony was to Dix’s social critique.