The Bard 1817

Curator: So, here we are, gazing at John Martin’s "The Bard," painted around 1817. Oil on canvas, monumental in scale, it resides at the Yale Center for British Art. What leaps out at you? Editor: That single figure silhouetted against such an enormous vista! He's a tiny spark of defiance against… everything. The whole thing has this wonderfully oppressive atmosphere. Like doom and glory wrestling for centre stage. Curator: Precisely! Martin was obsessed with the sublime, and here, he captures that overwhelming sense of awe and terror. It speaks volumes about the politics of imagery. Look closely: the bard is standing firm at the edge of the cliff while a massacre is taking place below! Editor: Is that the sweeping narrative style of Romanticism, weaving these huge themes of heroism, oppression, nature’s grander, and also ruin…into a canvas? What are your insights as an artist when you’re considering how this painting may resonate with modern viewers and makers? Curator: It's definitely a Romantic re-imagining. The painting captures both immense grief and resistance against a colonizing ruler, but perhaps more poignantly, it’s asking, who gets to tell the story? History writing is about who has the means to preserve a perspective and keep culture alive! Editor: It’s a gorgeous collision between romantic ideals and pretty savage historical undertones. You can almost hear the bard's defiance echoing across the landscape and reverberating with such profound meaning that can also get kind of heavy! Curator: Heaviness and scale. It’s as if Martin understood how collective trauma is carried forward, shaping everything we create and how we perceive our future… I'd love to bring this to the Met's next exhibit. Editor: As an artist, I just appreciate the feeling this painting captures, that we are all somewhat trapped on an historical cliff's edge... ready to fight or sing! It really offers such rich visual vocabulary.