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- annaklis
- Jul 9, 2014
- 5 min read
A Picture to Dream Over: The Isle of the Dead
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When faced with posterity’s lottery, artists might hope they have one work
atleast which finds favour with future generations. In the case of Swiss
painterArnold Böcklin (1827–1901) this would be Die Toteninsel (The Isle
of the Dead), not a single picture but a series of paintings produced from
1880 to 1886 all ofwhich depict a similar scene. The enduring popularity
of the pictures wouldn’thave surprised Böcklin, he painted the four
additional versions after the originalproved surprisingly popular. What’s
fascinating about the paintings is the spell they’ve cast over subsequent
generations of artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers.
The quality of mysterywhich Böcklin evoked is a specific attraction for those
drawn to the eerie and thefantastic. In this post we’ll look at a few of the
more notable derivations. All five paintings of The Isle of the Dead
(hereafter named according to thegalleries where they reside) show
the same small Mediterranean island withtombs and a stand of cypress
trees. Towards each isle a boat is being rowedbearing a coffin and an
upright figure clad in white. In the first version (Basel) the view is light and
airy: the isle is caught by a setting sun which makes thewhite of the tombs
leap to the foreground. As the series progresses the scene turns increasingly
sombre until in the final version (Leipzig) the rocks havegrown taller and
darker, storm clouds are gathering, and the standing figureis hunched in an
attitude suggestive of grief.
Version three (in Berlin) wasowned for a short time by Adolf Hitler while
version four was destroyedduring the Second World War. Böcklin’s mortuary
island is itself partially deceased. The atmosphere of stillness and mystery
was deliberate, Böcklin wanted "a picture to dream over.” The funeral boat
was absent from the original, that detail arriving after a widow expressed
an interest in the painting andrequested something be added to it to remind
her of her late husband. Böcklin painted a copy (now in New York) and added
figures to both thepictures. The title of Isle of the Dead was the suggestion of
an art dealer, the artist always referred to the scene as The Tomb Isle.
The first derivations were also pictures: a younger German artist andBöcklin
obsessive, Max Klinger, made an etching based on the Berlinversion. After
Böcklin’s deathanother acolyte, Ferdinand Keller, painted a memorial, The
Tomb of Böcklin, which alludes to the island, its tombsand its cypresses,
without being an overt copy. In the music world Heinrich Schülz-Beuthen in
1890 then Rachmaninoffin 1909 composed works inspired by the painting.
Rachmaninoff’s gloomysymphonic poem lasts around twenty minutes and
acquires a funerealcast with the introduction of the Dies Irae theme near
the end.
Böcklin’s style of Symbolist art fell out of favour around this time but interest
in the Symbolists was revived by the Surrealists in the 1930s. Salvador Dalíin
1932 painted The Real Picture of the Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklinat the
Hour of the Angelus, but the artist leaves us to work out theconnection
between the title and his scene of an empty beach. Of greater interest a year
later is the film King Kong which we’re toldborrowed Böcklin’s isle for the
distant views of Skull Island althoughI’ve never seen a definite confirmation
of this. King Kong was an RKO production and it was at RKO that the painting
makes two of its most memorable film appearances.
Producer Val Lewton had a curiousobsession with the picture, first using it in
the background of scenes inI Walked with a Zombie (a story about another
isle of the dead), then lifting painting and title for the 1945 film The Isle of
the Dead. MarkRobson’s film is a war-time thriller featuring Boris Karloff
which takesplace on a rocky, tomb-ridden island.The isle-as-setting recurs
again in The Tales of Hoffmann in 1951, a filmed adaptation of the Offenbach
opera by Michael Powell andEmeric Pressburger. The third act, “The Tale of
Antonina,” is set ona Greek island whose exterior is a replication of Böcklin’s
view. Up to this point all the derivations are either homages or variationson
Böcklin’s theme.
Roger Zelazny went a lot further in his 1969 novelIsle of the Dead which
relocates the island (or a version of it) to a distantplanet. I haven’t read this
but looking for cover designs it’s surprising tofind how few books bother to
take their cue from any of the paintings.In the 1970s HR Giger produced
several Böcklin-influenced picturesincluding two isles of the dead.
The first, from Giger’s ’Green Landscapes’series, copies the Leipzig painting
and adds a mechanism froma waste-disposal truck which had been obsessing
the artist. The secondversion employs his biomechanical style and looks
alien enough to workas a cover for Zelazny’s novel.After Giger the derivations
in comics and fantasy art really start toproliferate so we’ll fast-forward to
2005 and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, a feature film by the Brothers Quay
set on a Mediterranean isle which isBöcklin’s in all but name.
The film connects obliquely to Powell & Pressburgerwith a Hoffmann-like tale
of a sinister automaton-maker, Dr. Droz, andan abducted opera singer who
everyone thinks has died.What is it about this view which continues to inspire
so many creativepeople while the artist responsible remains comparatively
unknown?
Böcklin has fixed a powerful image of an edge, a border, somewherecaught
between sea and land, calm and storm, day and night, life anddeath, reality
and fantasy. Salvador Dalí once said “The quicksands ofautomatism and
dreams vanish upon awakening. But the rocks of theimagination still remain.”
The rocks of Böcklin’s imagination continue todraw us towards their enigmas.
For those who’d like to pursue the mystery further, Toteninsel.net isthe place
to start. Val Lewton’s obsession with the painting is detailed here.
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John Coulthart is an illustrator and graphic designer. His collection of Lovecraft
comic strip adaptations, The Haunter of the Dark and OtherGrotesque Visions,
is published by Creation Oneiros.
Vocabulary:
posterity - potomność
enduring - trwały
to cast a spell - rzucić zaklęcie/czar
subsequent - późniejszy, dalszy
evoke - wzbudzać
eerie - niesamowity, przejmujący grozą
derivation - pochodzenie, pochodna
hereafter - od tej chwili (też: the hereafter - życie pozagrobowe)
tomb - grobowiec
cypress tree - cyprys
bear - nosić
coffin - trumna
clad - odziany
leap to - skoczyć
sombre - posępny, mroczny
hunched - zgarbiony
grief - smutek, żałoba
mortuary - kostnica
deceased - zmarły
deliberate - zamierzony
etching - akwaforta (Technika graficzna, polegająca na trawieniu w kwasie
azotowym rysunku wykonanego stalową igłą na płycie miedzianej pokrytej werniksem)
acolyte - akolita (pomocnik)
to allude - robić aluzję
overt - jawny
gloomy - ponury
recur - powracać
homage - hołd
cue - sygnał do rozpoczęcia (to take one's cue - pójść w czyjeś ślady)
a waste-disposal truck - śmieciarka
proliferate - mnożyć się
obliquely - ukośnie
sinister - złowieszczy
abducted - porwany
comparatively - względnie
quicksands - ruchome piaski
Zdjęcie - źródło: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Isola_dei_Morti_IV_%28Bocklin%29.jpg
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