Viool van faïence 1876

Léopold Flameng etched this image of a faience violin, presenting both its front and back. The 'S' shaped sound holes, here doubled, are not merely acoustic necessities. They echo a deeper visual language. Consider how the serpentine form reappears through art history, from the twisting Laocoön to Bernini's ecstatic saints. These shapes express heightened states of emotion. The violin, with its capacity to elicit profound feeling, becomes a vessel for collective emotional experience. Here, it’s etched with scenes of people, perhaps recalling shared musical moments. Music, like memory, is cyclical, returning to themes and motifs. This etching captures that very interplay between sound, image, and the enduring human quest to express the intangible.