MM N 317. The Aula pictures. Lovely Helene

Edvard Munch allows the Alma Mater character and the figure of the old man in History to enter into an imaginary rhetorical self-defence of the figurative positions that he invests them with in the Aula wall decorations’ main panels.

MM N 317, fol. 0r

The Aula pictures 

Lovely Helene

MM N 317, fol. 1r

    The Mater enters

    here I am

    I sit by the Shore breastfeeding my
Child – surrounding me in the Grass, on the Beach
in the Water – my Little Ones wade
and seek and examine

    Around me a Summer Wind wafts –
the Flowers emit their fragrance – the Seed it is borne
by a full Summer Breeze –

    The Clouds above – the buoyant white ones – rest
– and drift – beneath the heavenly atmosphere – with
Patches of an azure
blue Firmament – the primordial Firmament –
– all that I imagine filters through
me – Strength to the little one – my
precious Boy – the Present and
the Future – the Saga of the Lust for Life –

MM N 317, fol. 2r

    The Source of the Life Force

The Professor    Das wird also genannt –
Das wissenschaftliche Brust – Sehr gut –
[It is also called –
The scientific breast – Very good – ]

The second Professor laughs – No my dear Mater
Go you have no right to be here – with all
Your Children – how many do you have

The Mother is radiant 15 and I am only 38 years old

– The Professor –    15
are you mad –    too many    go –

Professor K  – with Patent Leather Shoes
Ha-ha – Have you seen such a thing
Why are You not naked like
Your Children – And those impenetrable Clothes –

The Mother blushes    But Honourable Professor
would You demand that – as I sit here

MM N 317, fol. 3r

– quietly breastfeeding and watching over my Children –
and the Clothes –    they are homemade – by
me Honourable Professor –

Professor – S 
– And there You sit
staring straight ahead of You –

    We cannot use a Mother who
does not take Heed of her Children –

The Mother – I sit here breastfeeding my Child
and – the others are playing
at my feet – I
fell into a Reverie for a Second – and imagined
and dreamed that the Boy would grow to become
big – a King – even an Emperor –

Professor K  grunts –
– There are too may figures in it –

MM N 317, fol. 4r

there should be as many in
the other one with the Old Man where
there are only two –
If there is one place where there should be
Equality then it is here –
An old Man must have 15 Children
when a young Wife has 15 –
Grunts: Forward March – about face –
march in place – Take your positions – look to
the left when you look to the right –
15 on the right Side and 15 on the left –

PK    An old Man cannot have more than 15 Whores
when he has 15 Children

The Professor – And besides it is Science we
want – all of the Representatives for
Science –

    A Child can it study Physics
ha  … 

Mathematics steps forward
I am Mathematics, Mathematics
– I am inebriated – yes inebriated and completely mad
– An Arm on the right, An Arm
on the left – 2 Legs and a – yes I have
a Head – or had –

MM N 317, fol. 5r

– And let me tell You, and let me
tell You the Head I had – I have
lost it –
One Head less – one Head less
that makes nil – that is Mathematics

Professor Krogh  grunts
Besides my dear Mother you are – too large
in Relation to History –
It is true You can be made smaller –
– so that You are the same size as History
– but then History will be too large
in Relation to You
When 4 is less than 5 – subtract 1
from 5 –
then 4 will be larger
than 5 minus 1

Kajanus  – That is perchance
the God of Mathematics – He who
has a Head minus a Head –

– Yes but remember – that – the Head also
has a Plus –
– the Horns

MM N 317, fol. 5v

The God of Botany – Appears in a white Toga
with Flowers and Garlands

    I am Botany Botany – The Goddess
of Botany I am –

    In order that You shall understand that I am Botany
I have had all sorts of Flowers sewn
to my Attire – the white costume
– what you see folded into light – classical
preferably Greek Shapes –

    This is so that it should fit in with
the distinctive rooms – or the straight
Lines – of the Hall – I have no understanding
of it – I have been an academic
The Bath Woman of Gothenburg – and I
have bathed the female Students – I believe the
Hall most resembles the Bathhouse there – the
academic bathhouse 

    – But I am entirely forgetting – the pure Lines
I am Botany Botany – I
have entirely forgotten to speak distinctly
– a Swede would have said

MM N 317, fol. 6r

    – Professor Krog 

    – All such Decorations must have a Touch
of the Classical Spirit – here there is no trace of
the sublime – no trace of heritage –

    The People shall walk up the broad stone Steps
– wearing long Togas – and in straight Lines –
Here they will stop now and then – and with
right Arm resting on left Arm – and this
in turn on a Pillar – or something similar
in the Greek Style – one could even make a Balustrade
to place under the arm – in an unending Discussion about
profound or lofty subjects –

    From the highest Step – close to the Air
– one could imagine it to be Parnassus somewhere
in Greece where such lofty Subjects
were discussed by Men in long Togas with straight
Lines – and grave Expressions and long Beards
– as well as Faces shaved of Beards – the various Men
are grouped – and of course Woman – at an appropriate Distance

    – One must not forget to allow them
now and again to support their Heads with their Hands as they
lean over – a position of the Hand to the Side which
means to rest in thought is rather good –

MM N 317, fol. 7r

    History –

    The Old Man    what are You really – What does it
mean when you come with these old Clothes

    The Old Man    it is these that I have worn out
through wearing – they are 10 Years old

    The Patches there my Wife has sewn on –
Do You see the red Patch on the Knees –
that was in Brazil – during a Storm – I
tore it off there on a Spar –
I had a heck of a time with the Sail down there believe
me –

    Becomes suddenly quiet – shuts his eyes
and ponders

    Bloody red
the Deck was – the Blood flowed – the ‹Dying›
and the ‹dead› fighting and falling – Blow upon Blow
Arrows rushed through the Air – Spears flashed in
the Air

    – Then I received a Blow – On my knees

MM N 317, fol. 8r

I lay – in Blood – then Blow upon blow and stabs

– That was at Hafrsfjord –

    I lay against a Stone – the Blood
ran from my Breast – around me my Men
battled – the Group becomes
thinner and thinner –

    Someone stabbed me beneath my mail armour –
then everything turns black before my Eyes –

    A golden Crown which shone like
Blood in the Morning Sun was
placed on my Head
That was at Stiklestad –

    I see –

    What are you babbling about –
You say that You see – but You are blind

The Old Man    I look back – within –
and without – I see the Past – and can
glimpse the Future –

MM N 317, fol. 9r

Professor – Have you seen such a Thing
showing up in Carnival Costume –

the Old Man    This is how we dress out there
in Kragerø – It was no Carnival
for me Honoured Professor –

The one decorated with Medals – What does a
bedraggled suit like this mean – A Man
in such Apparel – a Fisherman cannot
tell you anything worthwhile –

The Old Man –
The Lesson is old:
that Clothes do not make the Man –
the Apostles were fishermen honoured Professor – they had much
to tell

Professor K   [–] Have you heard such a Thing –
An old Man recounting something to a
young Boy – A Fisherman – that is supposed to be
History – the Lesson
– Who will understand it –

    Kajanus  – At least not such Headless Knights as Professors

MM N 317, fol. 10r

– Layer upon Layer – Mountains split open
they rose – and fell the Sea sank
and rose – Millennia passed – Millennia
were born – new Generations were born – buried
– rose from the dead –

    Professor Brøgger  – Well now we have seen
Everything – there is no such thing as blue Stones – Clouds that are blue
That you can be sure of
The Tree grew inward into the Earth
upward into the Air – Was disintegrated
struggling against the Storm – left for the North

Yes but stop Old Trees do not exist
in

MM N 317, fol. 11r

I am

    I am the God of History – the Folds
fall heavy and long – Sword by my
Side Shield by my Breast –

    I am the God of History – the God
of History – the God of History
I am –

I am lovely Helene – no pardon me
I am lovely Alma – lovely Athena
– lovely Athena – the Folds fall
evenly and gracefully – over a Shoulder over
a Shoulder at the hip the Toga is fastened
– It falls long and heavy, long
and gracefully to Athena’s Foot –

MM N 317, fol. 12r

The Crystal Ball of Wisdom – I carry in my Hand
The Crystal Ball of Wisdom has been given to me –

    Professors and Gods, Goddesses dance

    The Goddess of Beauty enters –

    Then all the Attire falls off them – they dance
about naked – there were the most dreadful Caricatures
lame thick-bellied – Skeletons –

    Then Art enters
– Into the Bath with all of you
so that you can wash yourselves of all your Flaws
– allow the Swedish bath Woman to wash you in

MM N 317, fol. 13r

this Hall which is no Hall of Festivities it
can serve as an Academic bathhouse  –
where hopefully we can scrub all the Filth
off you that you have accumulated in the Course
of Time together with
Gold and Decorations – and Professor Titles –

    There is too much false Gold in the Hall –
Into the Water with you

    Remember that Beauty in simple –
and so is Reason – You have
accumulated so much Knowledge and just as
many of the Flaws of Knowledge which
you wish at All Costs to burden your
Descendants with – It is possible
that what you teach them does more harm
than what is good in the Lesson –

    Become Children again and You shall
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as Alma
Maters and step down from your Pedestals
and look to the Flowers of the Earth
– Shed your trappings and Beauty
and Reason will arrange a Celebration

    Then you shall be clean – cleansed of the Intoxication of pure Lines