Rosemaria Roy
Dublin, Ireland

Doctors stand at the crossroads as both healers and witnesses in the dance between life and death, easing suffering while still holding space for the inevitable. As frequent as one may face it, the concept of death is still not yet fully understood. This constant confrontation with mortality is often left drawing many blanks—or perhaps consciously avoided as a form of self-protection, denying the existence of the inevitable.

Arnold Böcklin’s Death Playing a Fiddle was painted in 1872.¹ It is an intriguing yet haunting self-portrait, depicting death personified and even playing a fiddle. Whether the skeleton behind him is symbolizing his unavoidable future, or if it is simply depicting the “call of death,” we cannot be sure. However, one thing that strikes me is that both characters in life and death seem to be partaking in an artistic outlet of their choice. One thing that struck me was Böcklin’s use of music in this painting, which is what allowed us to deduce that “death” is being personified. A skeleton playing an instrument personifies death in a way that reinforces a profound truth that we are all subconsciously aware of—it is our art, craft, and passions that make us truly human and alive.

This can draw a direct comparison to arts interventions in medicine, used as an approach to holistic care. Treating the body is often not enough to heal the soul. Many hospitals in Ireland, for instance, encourage patients to partake in different activities through arts and health initiatives. It reinforces the fact that medicine is not purely a science but a series of choices—ones that not only influence patient survival but also nurture their quality of life. As someone who was allowed to witness these artistic therapies firsthand and felt their direct impact, even from the sheltered perspective of a healthy student, I experienced the tremendous relief that relishing in different mediums of art had brought to me, a fact I frequently had ignored and deemed irrelevant.

Böcklin had a particular interest in the afterlife, and the depiction of mortality can be seen in many of his paintings. He had dared to think about a topic often left untreated, but from a different angle. Paintings such as this seem to perceive death as simply the continuation of life rather than the end of it. Rather than the rigid and unmoving image that is often connotated with death, he associates it with more lively features, such as the fiddle. Notably, he does not change the somber personality of death brought into action in this painting with the use of eerily dull colouring.

Reference

1. Arnold Böcklin. Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle. Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Google Arts & Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/self-portrait-with-death-playing-the-fiddle-arnold-b%C3%B6cklin/qQFJu2y_sT8mlg?hl=en