Dancing Round the Maypole 1709 - 1719

Curator: Look at this vivacious scene. The artwork here is "Dancing Round the Maypole," thought to be created by Arnold Frans Rubens sometime between 1709 and 1719. Editor: It has the joyous energy of a swift pencil sketch trying to capture a fleeting festival! The textures feel almost charcoal-like in their swift application. Curator: Well, it is categorized as drawing; several mediums are present, like graphite and pencil. Rubens really captures this communal spirit in the image, focusing on labor and how the social community intertwines. You'll notice figures congregating in various activities around the central maypole. The location where we are showing this image now is at SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst Editor: Oh, absolutely! I find myself drawn to the almost chaotic energy—a swarm of bodies whirling around that central pole like filings to a magnet. There is some wood material around the art that is lovely, very grounding Curator: Yes, Rubens seems fascinated by how these public displays functioned as sites of social production. You see clear Baroque and landscape elements mixed in here. Think about the materiality: paper, graphite, wood—cheap, easily sourced items transformed into a compelling image that speaks volumes about early 18th-century festival culture. Editor: Material certainly grounds it in our experience of such scenes—almost dreamlike; the sketchiness contributes to its lively feel as if this festival never quite settles in a static reality! There is also a bit of sculpture that accentuates the material composition within it, making it quite striking! Curator: Precisely! The genre-painting tradition lends it this observational lens—Rubens documents more than dictates here, really allowing that energetic 'swarm,' as you say, to lead the composition. It does remind one of some forms of charcoal drawing in application of certain details of the art. Editor: Well, thinking of all the dancing I have been doing these days, it is a good reminder that movement and people should always be welcomed, just like here in this gorgeous artwork. Curator: Indeed. It makes you appreciate art practices like these. It highlights how making and appreciating this form of art can allow for new perceptions of materiality in social practices and social production to come.