Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Viking Death


Parting from Orvar Odd (1866)
A painting by Swedish painter Mårten Eskil Winge (1825-1896)



Hervors Death by the Norwegian painter Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831-1892) shows the death of a valkyrie or shieldmaiden.

Both paintings are very similar in their gesture and their colours. They depict the moment of the "famous last words". And with this theme they are similar to a lot of others.
Every nation had its own dying heroes. But nevertheless they pretended to be so unique national, today they seem so similar.
Its the all european romantic hero-death-kitsch.

1 comment:

  1. I do not think that these paintings were entirely intended to represent historical "fact". They are along the same line as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (-+ mid 1800's)who painted both historical and myth based themes. There is an element of fantasy about the paintings that I think most educated viewers were aware of. Modernism in painting gradually came into popularity as photography became more wide spread. Artists were somewhat forced to do things that cameras could not do. Abstraction and intentional distortion was a means to remain relevant in a changing technological world.

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