Soulscape 31, Isle of the Dead by Böcklin
Art Is a Trip Into the Unknown
Arnold Böcklin, Isle of the Dead, 1883. Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
Rachmaninoff composed one of his masterpieces, inspired by this painting: Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead. Darkly atmospheric and lit with warm yellow light, the scene shows a shrouded figure in white standing in a boat, alongside a covered casket and a rower, about to land on a small isle with dark cypress trees and rock tombs. The melancholy effect calls to mind the ancient Greek myth of the River Styx and Charon ferrying the dead to the underworld. Far from being a celebration of life, it feels like an ode to death.
We don’t have to experience this in real life to understand it. For many, the mood is unwelcome, but others might say, "Yes, that is what the loss of a loved one is like to me," and that is what I would like my service to be like.
Through art, we get to “try on” moods, ideas, feelings, and visions as if they were really happening to us. And we can safely assess the experience and decide whether it’s something we would like to strive for—or not.
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