Bråvallaslaget 1852

Curator: Welcome. Here we have Johan Aagaard’s woodcut from 1852, titled “Bråvallaslaget”, housed here at the SMK. A woodcut depicting the Battle of Bråvalla? What are your first thoughts? Editor: Epic! It looks like a page torn straight out of Norse mythology itself. The stark black and white adds to this sense of drama, almost like the sky is cracking open with thunder. And is that a funeral pyre at the bottom? Heavy. Curator: The composition is meticulously structured. Aagaard employs the print medium to render a classical, narrative structure, note especially the artist’s engagement with hierarchical scale to position key characters, thus indicating their societal standing and symbolic significance. Editor: It's like the artist knew that in stories like these, size always equals power. I wonder, looking at that cart pulled by the horses, are we meant to be cheering on one side or mourning the other? There is something undeniably gorgeous, but incredibly melancholic here. Curator: Considering its context, "Bråvallaslaget" uses line and form to explore ideas related to history painting. Specifically, consider the print medium which helps frame a tangible discourse relating to themes surrounding a mythologized past. It presents history as something tangible but distant, relying on collective memory. Editor: Mythologized, absolutely. The expressions on those faces are almost archetypal, these aren't just men at war, they are legends in the making, doomed perhaps but defiantly, even gloriously so. Tell me more about the technique here—that crisp, black and white feels so definitive. Curator: Aagaard opted for the woodcut print technique. The process allows for a distinctive stark contrast. By emphasizing bold lines and distinct shapes, the work thus evokes themes related to truth and justice; moreover, consider how such form and materiality enables accessibility and wider dissemination. Editor: Accessible perhaps, but timeless too. You could imagine finding this printed on a tattered banner. This woodcut speaks of primal struggles. It also hints at something profound about history and how stories outlive those who create them, however beautiful or cruel their world once seemed. Curator: Indeed. Reflecting on this woodcut, we have seen how Aagaard blends technical skill with nuanced meaning, leaving us to ponder narratives both distant and relevant. Editor: And hopefully, leaving us a little wiser about the weight of old stories. Thanks to this art we continue, always.