"Musiken til Balletten Lagertha" 1748 - 1831

Curator: J.F. Clemens' "Musiken til Balletten Lagertha," created sometime between 1748 and 1831, greets us with an intriguing landscape scene, rendered with watercolour, colored pencil and print. Editor: It strikes me as almost theatrical – a painted stage backdrop, the muted colors and somewhat naive perspective lend a fairytale-like quality. Curator: I see that too! Lagertha, as a figure, pulls from Viking legends. So the backdrop isn't merely decorative. It represents a deep yearning for a romantic, heroic past and also serves to place her character in a meaningful context, the nature itself reflects her own fierce, untamed spirit. Editor: The layering of the landscape and muted tonality suggest a fascination with natural resources and their alchemy. This pre-industrial vision relies on earth pigments and their laborious production to simulate raw materials. Look at how that pigment sits on the paper itself. Curator: I’m drawn to the arch formation of the rocks in the midground, a symbolic threshold, almost like a natural proscenium framing the suggestion of water beyond. Arches symbolize transitions and passages, hinting at Lagertha's transformative journey within the ballet, as well. Editor: It is really quite remarkable that despite its size, the print's process seems to point to this slow consumption, with the eye following each color layer—was the average person aware of the resources to make these objects and stories? Or only of its price? Curator: An interesting point. The landscape is romanticized, but what of the romanticized labor that went into representing such beauty? It is a fascinating question to keep in mind as we proceed in our analysis of artistic legacies and visual rhetorics. Editor: Agreed. Examining how things are made makes you look differently.