Moritz von Schwind
Father Rhine Playing Volker's Fiddle, um 1865
Öl auf Leinwand, 33,6 x 63,7 cm
1869 durch Adolf Friedrich Graf von Schack erworben
Inv. Nr. 11581
Father Rhine Playing Volker's Fiddle
The Rhine became a national symbol for Germans during the Napoleonic wars and the period leading up to the revolutions of 1848. As the setting of legends and myths from Germany¿s distant past, and as the subject of Romantic poetry, it played an important part in establishing a sense of national identity. Schwind¿s personification of the Rhine as a bearded man in armour takes its cue from traditional depictions of river gods. The fiddle alludes to Volker, who in the Nibelung saga was a musician at the Burgundian court in Worms.