Monday, February 27, 2012

Viking Funeral

The Funeral of a Viking (1893) by the British painter Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee (1853-1928).

Dicksee was a typical Victorian painter who exploited historical subjects in a manner which is still considered as Pre-Raphaelite style even though it has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Here he shows a highly dramatic scene where the Vikings are clad in Gallic armor including the stupid horned helmets invented by Wagnerian stage designers. To to me it seems more than stupid to push a longship through the surf.
It is safe to assume that the whole scenery is as false as the costumes, but this didn’t stop the popularity of the work which was used in 1990 as a cover of a heavy metal cd.

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