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You are here: Home / Archives for Art History

Art History

Oct 31 2022

What is a Pieta?

What is a Pieta?

Guest post by Pat Knepley

Pieta (pronounced Pee-yeh-ta) is the word for the theme in Christian art of the mourning Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of her son, the crucified Jesus.  One of the most important themes in Christian Art, the pieta is usually a sculpture in wood or stone, but sometimes is a painting.  All through the ages, this theme of the mourning mother of God has evoked powerful emotions.

The Pieta (Italian for pity) was an idea in art that came about in Germany in the 1300s and was called Vesperbild. In other European countries, it was known by the Latin term Mater Dolorosa, or Sorrowful Mother.  The Lamentation of Christ – the portrayal of those close to Jesus mourning Him after his body was taken down from the cross – had been a part of religious rites in the church for quite some time, but specifically the idea of Mary as the mourning mother  had only reached Italy in 1400, and soon became a staple of religious art.

Röttgen Pietà
Röttgen Pietà

The Röttgen Pietà, an early fourteenth-century sculpture is made of painted wood, with an elongated figure of Christ, with an oversized head and exaggerated wounds. The grief-stricken mother is also portrayed in an abstracted fashion, and these unrealistic elements serve to elicit a sense of angst and pity for the tragic scene.

Pieta des Villeneuve-les-Avignon
Pieta des Villeneuve-les-Avignon

As religious icons moved across Europe, the theme of the pieta reached artists of other countries. In France, we find the painting of the mournful virgin, known as the Pieta des Villeneuve-les-Avignon, believed to be painted by the French artist Enguerrand Quarton. This oil paint on wood masterpiece of the late Middle Ages is notable for its restraint in showing the grieving mother, as her hands are in prayer rather than clutching her son’s body. The other figures are still and solemn in their sorrow.

Many artists have created their own version of the pieta. Do you know who created the most famous pieta of all? Check back next week to find out.

Here is a discussion about the Rottgen Pieta.

Take your art to the next level with See the Light videos:

And don’t miss these free resources from our blog:

Written by James Pence · Categorized: Art History, Uncategorized

Oct 03 2022

How to Incorporate Aesthetics into Your Art Class

Incorporate Aesthetics into your Art Class
da Vinci - The Last Supper
"The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci

Guest post by Pat Knepley

Why should the home educator include art as part of the core classical curriculum? Because all of humanity through the ages has used the arts to tell us stories about every aspect of the lives of the people – their culture, their nations, their history, their beliefs.

A general understanding of what is involved in art education is probably more valuable to the homeschooler than any artistic talent.

There are four components to a well-thought-out art program as described in the Discipline-Based Arts Education  (DBAE).  These components are art history, art criticism, art production, and aesthetics. The home educator should consider all of these components as equally valuable when they think of teaching art, as intimidating as that might be.

The best way to explain how to encompass all four components is to use a piece of art as an example that most people would be familiar with: Leonardo da Vinci’s famous fresco The Last Supper.

In this post, we’ll be considering aesthetics.

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with beauty in the world and seeks to define what makes something beautiful. To further develop a child’s art literacy, ask some questions about what he/she feels about a piece of art.

  • Why does this appeal to you?
  • What makes it beautiful to look at?
  • How do you feel when you look at that?

Helping kids to relate to the world and communicate in art terms is immensely beneficial.

In a nutshell, art criticism is how one thinks about art and aesthetics is how one feels about art.

Aesthetics is the primary component of art used in interior design and fashion design, which seeks to discover what pleases the most people. Think about how you would feel walking into an expensive, exclusive restaurant with velvet curtains and marble tables versus the aesthetics of a local coffee shop with chrome stools and laminate counters.

When someone talks about an emotional response to art or design, that is aesthetics.

This iconic Renaissance fresco offers a great opportunity to ask what emotions da Vinci was trying to evoke from the viewer by depicting such a dramatic scene from the Bible: the very moment when Jesus tells his followers that one of them will betray Him.

What clues does the viewer get as to the emotions revealed in this scene, such as the hand gestures?

What can you imagine each disciple saying in response to the Lord’s announcement that one of them will betray him that very night?

How does the artist increase the sense of drama by the composition?

When looking at a piece of artwork, it is just as important to ask how you feel about it as what you think about it. As you go through your school year, why not take the time to incorporate aesthetics into your program? Find a book about art or art history, or go to one of many online art museums, and have your children react to some of the paintings and other artwork they see there. Better yet, go to a real art museum if you live near one.

You don’t have to be an artist to have a rich homeschool art program.

Take your art to the next level with See the Light videos:

And don’t miss these free resources from our blog:

Written by James Pence · Categorized: Art History, Homeschool, Pat Knepley, Uncategorized

Sep 26 2022

How to Incorporate Art Criticism into your Art Class

Incorporate Art Criticism into Your Art Class
da Vinci - The Last Supper

Guest post by Pat Knepley

As an art teacher, I feel that art is an essential part of a well-rounded curriculum, as it adds so much value to the learning (and life) experience. But I am sure I need to do some convincing for reluctant home educators who already see a lot of course work they need to squeeze in to their daily routine. This is especially true when many homeschooling moms and dads confess their frustration with teaching art, because they don’t have artistic talents or abilities.

In an effort to show how teaching art need not be constrained by artistic talent, this month the See the Light blog is focusing on a discipline-based approach to art education. This approach focuses on integrating art with the disciplines, including art history, art criticism, aesthetics, and art production.

I am using Leonardo da Vinci’s, fresco The Last Supper as an example of how to approach a piece of art and explore fully each of the four disciplines for a rich art-learning experience. This week’s post will cover the next to a well-thought-out art program: art criticism. Again we return to The Last Supper as a base of understanding.

Art criticism simply involves talking about art. The viewer tries to get inside the head of the artist and ask questions such as, “What was the artist trying to say?” In art criticism, we learn to look at the art work with a critical eye as it relates to use of the seven art elements: line, shape, space, value, color, texture and form.

But the viewer should also look within herself and ask why she likes or dislikes this particular work. Being able to talk about a piece of art work and make it personal is a good way to increase critical thinking skills. There are ample opportunities to connect art to everyday learning. A basic understanding of the seven art elements and the five design principles (balance, proportion, rhythm, emphasis and unity) can be a great way to dive into a conversation when your son admires the graphics in a new game or your daughter gushes over a fabric design and texture.

When looking at The Last Supper, you would immediately notice the strong perspective that da Vinci employed in order to focus the viewer’s attention to the head of Jesus. The lines made if you follow where the ceiling meets the floor, and the lines made by the top of the tapestries on the wall create a strong vanishing point right at the head of Jesus. It was during this era of the Renaissance that artists discovered the principles of linear and aerial perspective to bring more realism to their works. da Vinci pioneered using one- point perspective to provide a strong focal point with his sacred subject matter. da Vinci also used geometry to arrange the rest of the composition. All of the twelve disciples are clumped in groups of three to form four triangles on the side of the table.

This can be a fun exercise for kids – print out copies of the image of The Last Supper and have your students use a marker to draw shapes where there are geometric aspects of da Vinci’s composition: the strong linear perspective and symmetrical balance. This compelling fresco captures the moment in Scripture when Jesus is at his last meal with his disciples, and has just said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.” His men are dumbfounded, asking “Surely, not I Lord!” The personalities of each of the disciples can be ascertained by the facial expression and body language that da Vinci was careful to individualize. It truly is an amazing work of art.

Note: Scroll down for a short (8 min) critical analysis of The Last Supper.

NEXT WEEK: We’ll continue our exploration of Discipline-Based Art Education by looking at The Last Supper from the perspective of aesthetics.

Author’s Note: The area of art education that makes people, if not nervous, perhaps hesitant . . . is the art-making process: art production. But drawing is a skill like any other skill. I believe it can be taught (like how to swing a tennis racquet can be taught) with age-appropriate instruction. I recommend the DVD-based drawing instruction that I host: Art Class from See the Light for ages 6 to 10. With this fun, foundational, skill-building series, kids of all ages will feel successful when learning to draw.

Take your art to the next level with See the Light videos:

And don’t miss these free resources from our blog:

Written by James Pence · Categorized: Art History, Homeschool, Uncategorized

Sep 19 2022

How to Integrate Art with History

Burgundy background with cartoonish books, art palette, and paintbrush. Text overlay: How to Integrate Art with History. An Introduction to Discipline-Based Art Education. See the Light Shine
da Vinci - The Last Supper

There are four components to a well thought out art program as described in the Discipline-Based Arts Education (DBAE): Art History, Art Criticism, Art Production, and Aesthetics. The home educator should consider all of these components as equally valuable when they think of teaching art.

The best way to explain how to encompass all four components is to use a piece of art as an example that most people would be familiar with. Let’s look at Leonardo da Vinci’s famous fresco “The Last Supper”

Leonardo da Vinci was the quintessential Renaissance man of the late 15th century. He thought of himself as primarily an artist, but da Vinci was also a mathematician, inventor, scientist, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. Da Vinci spent his younger years as an apprentice to a master artist and increased in skill and recognition.

Later on, da Vinci’s wealthy benefactor asked him to paint a fresco to decorate the refectory (dining hall) in the monastery of Santa Maria Della Grazie. Leonardo worked on this project from 1495 to 1498. Even though he was a great painter, da Vinci was constantly experimenting with his materials, so this project took a long time.

For centuries, frescos had been painted by mixing tempera or watercolor paint into the wet plaster of a wall. That required the artist to work quickly before the plaster dried. Leonardo experimented with tempera, watercolor and even oil-based paint on dry plaster in order to get more detail. The problem was this experimental technique didn’t work, and the paint began to flake off shortly after the piece was completed.

In the 1600s, someone felt it would be allowable to cut a door through the wall that contains the fresco, so Jesus’ feet and a portion of the table were lost forever. A series of artists over the centuries, seeing that da Vinci’s original brilliant color was flaking off, tried to maintain the masterpiece by re-painting over the original, but it was turning into a mess. Then during World War II, a bomb nearly destroyed the monastery. The refectory suffered a lot of damage but the wall with the fresco only had minor damage. Over the ensuing years, rain and water damage through the thinner, repaired walls caused mold to grow on the fresco.

After all those years of misfortune, the most famous painting in the world was in serious trouble. So in 1999, a twenty-year restoration was initiated in order to return the Last Supper back to Leonardo da Vinci’s original vision. Most of the layers of additional paint from other artists have been carefully removed and we can now see the fresco as close to the original as possible.

Next week: We’ll continue our introduction to Discipline-Based Art Education by examining The Last Supper from the perspective of Art Criticism.

Author’s Note: The area of art education that makes people, if not nervous, perhaps hesitant . . . is the art-making process: art production. But drawing is a skill like any other skill. I believe it can be taught (like how to swing a tennis racquet can be taught) with age-appropriate instruction. I recommend the DVD-based drawing instruction that I host: Art Class from See the Light for ages 6 to 10. With this fun, foundational, skill-building series, kids of all ages will feel successful when learning to draw.

da Vinci - The Last Supper

 

The Last Supper — Leonardo da Vinci

Burgundy background with cartoonish books, art palette, and paintbrush. Text overlay: How to Integrate Art with History. An Introduction to Discipline-Based Art Education. See the Light Shine

Take your art to the next level with See the Light videos:

And don’t miss these free resources from our blog:

Written by James Pence · Categorized: Art History, Homeschool, Uncategorized

May 17 2021

Collage: Turn Scraps into Art

Collage by Picasso - 1913
Collage by Picasso - 1913

[Guest post by master artist, Pat Knepley]

Spanish artist Pablo Picasso may be the most well-known name in the world of art. And most people think of him as a painter. However, Picasso was also a sculptor and even brought back an ancient art form to be part of the modern art scene: collage. The term collage derives from the French “coller” meaning “glue”.

In Picasso’s case, he and friend and fellow-cubist painter Georges Braque, coined the term collage to mean the act of pasting scraps of flat objects (paper, lace, wicker, labels,) onto the surface of a painted canvas to make it part of the visual statement.

Picasso started this modern trend by adhering some chair seat caning to one of his canvases. His friend Braque pasted scraps of shredded paper. Later, newspaper clippings and labels from bottles , in fact any flat object would be incorporated into a painting, so that the words were part of the overall composition. There are other artists who through the twentieth century and into today have embraced collage as a viable art medium.

When the Post-impressionist Henri Matisse was plagued with health problems later in life, he gave up painting in oils at a tall easel, as was his custom, to try a new medium of art – collage. Matisse began to cut out large paper shapes and have assistants glue them to a large canvas to “paint with scissors”. His foray into bright colors, organic shapes, and oversized compositions brought a whole new audience to appreciate the genius that is Matisse.

The African American artist Romare Bearden used collage to great effect to tell stories of black Americans, with a special emphasis on musicians. What makes Bearden’s collages so intriguing are the many layers of painted papers, magazine clippings, and photographs to create complex images. When Bearden made collage his signature technique in the 1960s, he started off with simply torn or cut paper. But as the years went on, he added foil, textured materials, and miscellaneous found objects.

Next Time: An easy and fun Charlotte’s Web collage project for you and your children to try.

Interested in doing more collages? Scroll to the bottom of this post and check out Art Projects: Poppy Collage.

Notes:

For more about Romare Bearden, see: 

nga.gov/education/classroom/bearden/methc1.shtm

To learn more about Picasso and his collage work, check out this video:

Collage: Turn Scraps into Art. See the Light Art

Written by James Pence · Categorized: Art History, Pat Knepley, Uncategorized · Tagged: Art, Art History, Art Projects, collage, Georgia O'Keeffe, Homeschool Art, Picasso, Poppy Collage

May 10 2021

More than Words: Illustrating Great Stories (Pt. 2)

Guest post by Pat Knepley – In part one of this post, we looked at three great illustrators. This week we’ll consider four more: N. C. Wyeth, Arthur Rachkam,  Jessie Willcox Smith, and Edward Detmold.

More than Words - Great Story Illustrators, Part 2

N. C. Wyeth

Newell Convers Wyeth was the patriarch of an entire family of successful artists.  He and his wife home schooled their children, and included art instruction as the first subject each day.  Their son Andrew Wyeth became the most well known American realist painter of the twentieth century. N. C. painted more than 4000 illustrations for publication over his lifetime.

One of his most successful books was when he illustrated the Robert Louis Stevenson classic Treasure Island. Wyeth had a vivid imagination that translated into stunning illustrations filled with compelling characters and exacting detail.

Wyeth was known for studying every aspect of the genre he was illustrating in order to heighten the realism, even spending some time out west working on a ranch so that the cowboys he drew for his western stories would be true to life.

N. C. Wyeth - Boys King Arthur
N. C. Wyeth – Boys King Arthur

Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham  was one of the illustrators during England’s golden age of Book Illustration for the later years of the 19th century until the start of the Depression. His style of using pen and ink line drawings overlaid with watercolor washes created an ethereal and fanciful look that worked well with the range of stories he illustrated. One of his classics was the fairy tale Rip Van Winkle published in 1905.

The Three Bears - Arthur Rackham
The Three Bears – Arthur Rackham

Jessie Willcox Smith

Jessie Willcox Smith was an American illustrator known for her works in Women’s magazines and for Children’s literature.  Born and educated in Philadelphia, Smith had a long and successful career portraying young children even though she was never a parent herself.

Her rosy-cheeked children graced the covers of many magazines in the early twentieth century, and revealed an intuitive sense of children’s moods and movements. In addition to magazine work, Smith also illustrated classic Children’s literature, such as The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley and Heidi by Johanna Spyri from 1922.

 

Jessie Willcox Smith - Heidi
Jessie Willcox Smith – Heidi

Edward Detmold

Edward J Detmold was born in 1883 in England, and he was a twin. He and his brother were both talented artists with a gift for capturing plants and animals in all their natural beauty.  Detmold was influenced by the compositions and color of Japanese prints. In 1909, Detmold illustrated Aesop’s Fables., and since so many of those stories have animals as the main characters, this commission was well suited to Detmold’s skills.

Edward Detmold - The Tortoise and the Hare
Edward Detmold – The Tortoise and the Hare

For the home educator, linking art to literature is a natural.  Use a book your student is currently reading and have them illustrate one or more scenes. There are two approaches to take with a project like this: illustrate a scene that is described well, making sure the details match; or illustrate a lesser known scene where the artist can fill in details that the author did not take the time to describe.

More imaginative students will like this option. Keep the drawing to simple black pen or a very fine marker over an initial sketch in pencil. The more details added by the young artist, the better! Carefully reading a favorite line, within a chapter so get context, can provide the perfect inspiration (and caption)  for a drawing. So start reading some classics and let the words cause your imagination to translate into beautiful  pictures.

Try your hand at illustrating a Bible story with Art Projects, Dreams of Joseph:

Art Projects: Dreams of Joseph (Marc Chagall)

 

Written by James Pence · Categorized: Art History, Illustration, Pat Knepley, Uncategorized · Tagged: Art History, Art Projects, Arthur Rackham, Edward Detmold, illustration, illustrators, Jessie Willcox Smith, N. C. Wyeth, Pat Knepley

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