Music and Time Annotation << Back «Die Toteninsel» of A. Beklin – S. Rachmaninov: Symbolism of Posthumous Travel in a Historical, Cultural and Art Contexts – «Death boat», «Charon», «Islands» M.A. Chershintseva This article is the second part of the cycle of articles consisting in attempt of an explanation of the hidden symbolical meanings put in two brightest artifacts of late romanticism – the picture «Die Toteninsel» of A. Beklin and the symphonic poem «Island of the Dead» of S. Rachmaninov (written under impression of a black-and-white reproduction of a picture). Our task can be considered as an explanation of art and symbolical aspect in the declared comparison of two texts, specifi cation of hierarchy of their relationship with use of the «original – the copy» model. We consider «original» as protoplot embodied in ancient monuments of sacral culture, and «copies» as art «reconstructions» recreated by A. Beklin and S. Rachmaninov and later «remarks» on the same plot. The specifi city of work with «reconstruction» is involving reconstruction methods, used by artists i.e. for an explanation of essential aspects of the declared subject we need to shift from the position of observer and be involved in art process directly, as esthetic theorizing can not be separated from art making, one complements and explains another. By using this approach we notice three-level symbolical model in which the fi rst level is presented by «visual» similarity, analogies, associations, signs; the second is symbolical «reconstruction»; the third is the most diffi cult, its explanation has to be carried out in separate research as at this level, hypothetically, there are autonomous musical and symbolical ranks. The structure of all cycle of articles corresponds to the designated methodological reference points, as well as the structure of this article, which covers the second three of twelve episodes, revealing symbolical aspects of posthumous travel, images of the boat of death, the guide and helmsman, mysterious islands, concerning the phenomenon of «symbolical couple» in the context of the sacral travel refl ected in various cultural traditions. Installing in the general narrative outline fragments of the most ancient sources («Amduat», in particular), we correlate «topography» of our research to the imagined dream space, being in the eternal episodic formation. Keywords: «Die Toteninsel», Arnold Beklin, «Island of the dead», Sergey Rachmaninov, symbolism, reconstruction, romanticism, death, travel. Contacts: E-mail: mahamah@mail.ru Pp. 27-38.