By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin
Quick answer
Böcklin self-portrait with death skateboard wall art is one diptych, not two products. The Arnold Böcklin listing prints Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle (1872) across two vertical maple decks, 45 cm wide by 85 cm tall. Grade-A 7-ply Canadian maple, gallery UV print, hardware separate, ships from Berlin. These photographs put that pair in a cinema: the bearded sitter on the left deck, Death with the fiddle on the right. The cinema is the room, not the picture. Check the product page for the current price.
What the Two Decks Show
The listing has one variant. The title says diptych. The description says two decks mounted side by side, each standing vertically, one continuous composition across 45 × 85 cm. It is in the diptych collection. There is no second product for the face, and none for the skull.
The cut matches the photographs.
- Viewer’s left: the sitter. Bearded, dark coat, pale collar, head turned. The aisle clip shows a paintbrush on this deck. The ground is nearly black, so the face is the light.
- Viewer’s right: Death. A skull at the man’s ear, a hand, a fiddle. The tail of this deck carries the lower part of the picture, including the palette.
Noses up, portrait left and skeleton right, the two graphics meet as one painting. The seat photograph is the still of that join. Apart, they look like a portrait deck and a skull deck. That is the crop, not a second way to buy them. A wide gap, or the wrong order, takes the fiddle away from the ear.
The Pair in a Cinema
Red velvet, a dark aisle, warm practical lights. No film title is readable. The floor shot is the cover because it holds the pair and the room in one frame: both decks on the carpet in front of the seats, close enough to read as the painting, and a standing silhouette on the screen behind them. The silhouette is not part of the print.
The UV coat is glossy. Spots land on it, and the face and the skull still separate from the black ground. Red seats show what a white background hides: the brown-black field holds next to a strong colour. Maple edge, black rail, and mounting holes stay visible, so the object still reads as a skateboard deck.
Two short clips, about five seconds each. The first is a slow push-in on the aisle stairs: LED strips, red seats, the portrait deck sharp in front (bearded man, paintbrush), the skeleton deck farther up and softer. Both are in one shot, separated. Glossy finish, black edges, print running to the bottom of each deck. No text, logos, popcorn, or screen. The second is a slow zoom on one red seat: both decks side by side, spilled popcorn, a cup in the left armrest holder. No stairs and no screen. Side by side, the two graphics meet as one painting.
At seat distance you can separate the collar from the coat, and the hand from the fiddle. You also see the limits: glare on the UV coat, and the nose of each deck cropping the head. From across a room the pair reads as a man and a skull. From the cushion it reads as a fiddle at his ear.
The Painting
The product page attributes the print to Arnold Böcklin’s Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle, 1872. It calls him a Swiss Symbolist who worked in Rome and Munich, and it places the painting at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. A skeleton over his shoulder plays a violin into his ear while he listens and paints. The page calls that both a memento mori and a self-aware joke.
The Alte Nationalgalerie record for Selbstbildnis mit fiedelndem Tod agrees on the picture and not on the slogan. He painted it in Munich in 1872, oil on canvas, 75 × 61 cm, and the museum bought it in 1898. The catalogue text has him stopped mid-work, brush and palette in hand, listening. It quotes the journal Pan that same year: the picture is not tuned to “memento mori” but to “memento vivere.” Hang it as a man who has turned to hear a fiddle. The product page’s joke and the museum’s listening are both on the record. Neither makes this a still life of objects.
The canvas is 75 cm tall and 61 cm wide. The diptych is about 45 cm wide and 85 cm tall: taller than the painting, narrower, with the nose and tail taking the corners. Not a scaled copy. Böcklin died in 1901, and the museum’s photograph of the canvas is marked Public Domain Mark. The decks are a new print, shipped from the city where the original hangs.
Why This Room Fits
The cinema earns the photograph because the painting is a living sitter with Death behind him. You sit. A figure stands past your attention. The floor frame shows that without naming a film: two decks on the carpet, a standing silhouette on the screen. The aisle clip has no screen. Popcorn is only on the seat, next to a cup, which is closer to “he does not flinch” than to a haunted-house poster.
Nothing here asks you to hang the pair in a commercial cinema. On a white wall the black field becomes the whole object. On charcoal, navy, walnut, or deep green it sits in the wall. Forty-five centimetres will not span a sofa. It suits a pier, the end of a console, or the strip beside a screen. Memento Mori and Gothic Themes is the roundup of dark pictures. Skateboard wall art for a home cinema is the room: glare, dark walls, the screen. This page is one diptych in an auditorium.
Size, and How to Hang the Pair
From this product page: one diptych, two vertical decks, one picture, 45 × 85 cm. That 45 is the width of the pair, not the height. A single deck elsewhere in the shop is written 85 × 20 cm, tall by narrow. Do not swap the numbers.
- Format: about 45 cm wide and 85 cm tall (roughly 17.7 × 33.5 in). The sizes guide reads that width as two panels with about a 5 cm gap. This product page states 45 × 85 cm and does not itself spell out the gap.
- Material: Grade-A 7-ply Canadian maple. The page compares the wood to a professional skate deck. The listing is wall art.
- Print: gallery UV. No glass.
- Hardware: not included.
- Ships from Berlin.
Check the product page for the price.
Order, gap, height
- Portrait on the viewer’s left, Death on the right, both vertical, noses up. The palette belongs toward the bottom of the right deck. That is the painting, the floor shot, and the seat.
- About 5 cm between the decks, tops level. How many decks on one wall uses that gap inside a printed diptych, and about 10–15 cm only when the two decks are not one picture. A wide gap here splits the coat from the skeleton.
- On an open wall, centre the pair near eye level: about 145–150 cm from the floor to the midpoint, the height that same guide uses. At 85 cm tall the top lands near 190 cm.
- Above a console or a headboard, leave a clear band so the tails do not rest on the furniture. The sizes guide treats 45 cm as the width for a bedside table or a narrow console, not a three-seat sofa.
Fix each deck into a stud or a proper anchor. Steps are in How to Hang Skateboard Wall Art. The wall mount is for the wall. The floor stand is if you want them standing first, as they do in front of the screen and on the aisle stairs. The photographs show mounting holes. The listing does not include trucks, wheels, or wall hardware, and it does not call those holes a skate setup.
What This Is Not
| Piece | Why it is not this diptych |
|---|---|
| Böcklin, Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle | This set. One 1872 painting, two decks, 45 × 85 cm. |
| Grim Reaper | One deck, 85 × 20 cm. A hooded figure with a scythe, drawn as a graphic. Not a crop of this self-portrait. |
| Saturn Devouring | Also a diptych, also 45 × 85 cm. Goya, 1819–1823, now at the Prado. A different picture. |
One skull and no portrait: the Grim Reaper single. Another two-deck painting: Saturn. The painter turning to listen: this set. There is no Böcklin triptych on this listing. A triptych elsewhere in the shop is 70 × 85 cm. For how many boards a different wall can take, use how many decks on one wall.
FAQ
What painting is on these decks?
Arnold Böcklin’s Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle, 1872, at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The product page calls the scene a memento mori and a joke. The museum’s catalogue text says he is listening, brush still in hand, and it quotes Pan (1898) reading the picture as “memento vivere” rather than “memento mori.”
Is this one diptych or two decks sold separately?
One product. Two decks, one continuous composition, 45 × 85 cm, in the diptych collection. The face and the skeleton are not separate singles. The seat photograph is the pair as sold. The aisle photograph separates them only because they stand on different steps.
What size is the pair?
45 × 85 cm on the product page: about 45 cm wide and 85 cm tall (roughly 17.7 × 33.5 in), two vertical decks. The canvas in Berlin is 75 × 61 cm. This is a crop onto boards, not a scaled copy of that canvas.
How do you hang the two decks?
Portrait on the left, Death on the right, both vertical, tops level. About 5 cm between them, from the sizes guide and how many decks on one wall — not a measurement printed on this listing. On an open wall, centre the pair about 145–150 cm from the floor to the midpoint. A wider gap is for two pictures that were never one picture.
Is the mounting hardware included?
No. Buy the wall mount or the floor stand separately. The listing is wall art: no trucks or wheels. The photographs show mounting holes. The product page does not sell the pair as a street setup. Price is on the product page.
Will it work in a home cinema or media room?
The print can. There is no glass, but the UV coat is glossy, and the floor and seat photographs show highlights. Hang it out of a hard spotlight. The black ground suits a dark wall beside a screen; 45 cm is a slice, not a mural over the sofa. For the room rather than this picture, use the home cinema guide.
Is this the Grim Reaper deck?
No. The Grim Reaper deck is one board, 85 × 20 cm, a graphic hooded skeleton with a scythe. This listing is Böcklin’s self-portrait on two decks, with Death playing the fiddle.
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