The Cubist anatomy of the violin in the work of Georges Braque

This dissertation addresses the persistent use of the violin motif in Cubist art, with a focus on Georges Braque – one of the founders of Cubism. I analyse the violin in Braque’s Cubist oeuvre with respect to five musically relevant concepts: form, movement, tension, texture, and dynamic. Each of these musical concepts plays an important role in the communication with and in the interpretation of a music composition. Here, they are addressed as they apply to the Cubist violin from the visual perspective, amending the music definitions where necessary. This dissertation aims to present a close examination of the depictions of the violin in Braque’s Cubist oeuvre, currently missing from the scope of academic literature on Cubism. My research is done in the context of the social history of the instrument and of the emerging music forms and practices at the turn of the twentieth century. It relies on the concept of interart aesthetic – a notion that arises from the increasing amalgamation of various art forms at the turn of the century. Braque’s extensive experience with music and with classical instruments offer a unique perspective on representing a symphonic instrument in an avant-garde art form, while the historical context and the experimental music environment of the early twentieth century provide an ideal backdrop for a study of an instrument as versatile as the violin. This dissertation demonstrates Braque’s uniqueness among the Cubist artists, not only for his musical education, but for how he achieves coherence of art forms in his work to achieve a distinctive integration of painting and music in particular.