Arnold Böcklin is considered by art historians to be one of the most important Symbolist painters and the island of the dead, the painting that I will analyze in detail in this video, is undoubtedly the best known work of the painter and considered his masterpiece and emblem of the symbolism. Beloved also by famous personalities of culture and politics, this work over time has exercised a powerful almost hypnotic force of attraction.
To understand Böcklin's work, we need to immerse ourselves in the cultural climate of the time and in particular in the meaning of symbolism. A simple but clear definition that I always keep in mind when I approach a painting of this artistic current is the one given in the catalog of the exhibition "symbolism in Italy" - It should be remembered that the Swiss Böcklin lived for a long time in Italy - shows that was held at Palazzo Zabarella in Padua between 2011 and 2012. I quote the text of the catalog:
"The strength of symbolism was to represent in painting, also penetrating into the territory of the unconscious, the great universal values of humanity - the meaning of life and death, fantasy, dream, myth, enigma, the mystery - at a time when the advance of scientific and technological progress seemed to threaten them. "
What does this definition tell us? Meanwhile, symbolism represents in painting the universal values that have accompanied humanity since the dawn of time, values such as the very meaning of life and death and then again the myth, the dream, the mystery, the enigma, the fantasy. . But also, very importantly, that the preference given to these themes by the Symbolist painters comes at a historical moment in which technological progress was obscuring them, putting them aside, relegating them to a corner.
Let's try to look at the first version of the painting. The surface of the water is totally flat, it looks like a slab. We glimpse, just hinted at, the refracting of the waters on the left side. Even the reflection of the island on the water is minimized. We are faced with an almost unreal body of water that seems to violate the laws of nature. The sky is very dark, slightly lighter on the left; it looks like a night sky even if we notice that the white figure on the boat casts a shadow on the coffin. The light source is then behind us to the left. Some scholars have interpreted the light as that of twilight. I add a symbolic twilight of life. In this gloomy dimension, the rocks, of a resplendent brown color, are well lit as well as a white structure on the left which could be a sort of funerary chapel or temple of which we can see the pitch of the roof. Of all the versions of the painting, this is the one where the landing is narrowest. The amphitheater shape of the island is very closed and in the shade we cannot see where the boat will actually dock.
The cypresses (we see a dozen) are painted a very dark green and are compacted in the center. The island characterized by steep rocks and cliffs is also covered by other shrubs and bushes. We can also distinguish wild flowers.
The rower of the boat, who has been interpreted by some scholars such as Charon, the ferryman of souls of Dante's memory, is seated in the stern. He has long hair and could also represent a woman, perhaps alluding to Marie Berna herself who accompanies her husband's coffin and soul.
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6 окт 2024
