The Call Of Perseus 

Curator: What a powerful drawing. The subject dominates the field; it's monumental! Editor: Indeed! We are looking at a piece called "The Call of Perseus", made with pencil and charcoal, most likely a preparatory drawing by Edward Burne-Jones, connected to his Perseus series. The figure immediately evokes classicism, yet the roughness of the sketch makes it modern. Curator: I agree. This work has incredible energy. The medium gives the figure its rough quality, but Burne-Jones captures the protagonist as a thinking subject with purpose. His body language exudes forward movement; he has his hand raised in protection from the sun so that he can see whatever it is he’s after. It's about determination, isn't it? And it prompts reflections on what it means to be called to action. The nude form is about vulnerability but also the strength needed for radical, decisive change. Editor: Absolutely. Think about the paper and charcoal used. These are very accessible, earthly materials, meaning they’re of the earth. Charcoal requires burning – such as from the remnants of wood after the smith forges steel weapons that are ultimately intended for use in slaughter and destruction. It's an interesting contrast of raw material turned medium that in turns serves as a rough sketch for future large scale rendering of mythical scenes, complete with carnage. I wonder if that inherent contradiction might speak to Burne-Jones own ambivalence about such classic heroic depictions? Curator: I never thought of it in that way! Placing this within Victorian society, where notions of masculine virtue were under considerable strain given realities of British imperialism, such works force one to consider how ideas of the "hero" are actively produced and the cost of their embodiment in relation to larger societal violence. The drawing prompts such thinking about the relationship of historical narrative to current times... Editor: Right. So it’s interesting how even a sketch embodies tensions within both its material making and the social moment from which it came! Curator: Exactly. There are echoes of social complexities across time. Thank you, as always, for shedding light on that. Editor: Thank you. And to consider the material conditions through which even preparatory labor is born makes one sensitive to the real weight behind those epic narratives.