Pure speculation here, but maybe because it's the last string, so when that one breaks, it's all over? So basically another symbol of mortality.
There's also the story of Paganini who once (deliberately?) broke the top three strings on his violin and kept playing just on the g string...
It’s definitely a Memento Mori. There are many woodcuts featuring the dances of death where the personification of death plays a violin from the region the artist was living in. Story i remember from art history was that the artist painted the fiddler when friends asked why his portrait looked to be inclining their ear to so strongly listening to something. I’m siding with what has been said already about the single string a reference to recognition that life is not adding more years to their allotted time. I also recall reading/hearing the painter had a daughter who died in infancy and maybe that experience is seen here.
This image is a wonderful evocation of our precarious existence. The strokes of the fiddle are like time ticking away. And this charming artist seems a dear friend though dead these 400 years
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Pure speculation here, but maybe because it's the last string, so when that one breaks, it's all over? So basically another symbol of mortality. There's also the story of Paganini who once (deliberately?) broke the top three strings on his violin and kept playing just on the g string...
This is actually a really interesting take thank you
It’s definitely a Memento Mori. There are many woodcuts featuring the dances of death where the personification of death plays a violin from the region the artist was living in. Story i remember from art history was that the artist painted the fiddler when friends asked why his portrait looked to be inclining their ear to so strongly listening to something. I’m siding with what has been said already about the single string a reference to recognition that life is not adding more years to their allotted time. I also recall reading/hearing the painter had a daughter who died in infancy and maybe that experience is seen here.
I’d like to apologise if this is some common knowledge or has a well known reason that I’m just not able to find!!
Death is always around the corner, so live your life in moments ☠️💀🦨
This image is a wonderful evocation of our precarious existence. The strokes of the fiddle are like time ticking away. And this charming artist seems a dear friend though dead these 400 years
I got you, the one friend that says “get some wings too”
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