We arrived on April 24 to find that we could not do the exercises we intended to do in the Ancient World, so we got a lesson on flexibility instead.
In the 19th Century galleries, we were divided into pairs, assigned a portrait, and told to use the elements of art to discuss the portrait. What do you think this person is . . . thinking/feeling/doing? What is he/she like? How does the artist use line/color/shape/texture to get you to see that?
This was fun, and not just for the artwork. It's amazing how far we have come in our months of training. We all put on decent 5 minute presentations, without advance preparation, and we each used many more questions - "ask, don't tell" - to get our points across. It was really pretty amazing what we could discern from a portrait by concentrating on the visual clues used by the artist.
Focus on the eyes in this portrait of George Lucas and understand more about him as a discerning art critic and buyer who helped William Walters amass his collection.
Focus on the tools in his hand and his posture to get an idea of what the sculptor Barye was really like.
Note how the artist used line to depict Mrs. Decatur Miller from different angles, color to give us an idea of her personality, and shape to draw our eye to important aspects of the portrait.
The placement of the figure in the center of this portrait tells us a lot about The Artist and Liberty, as do the background, the dress, and the items on the shelf. What if he wore a different color? What if he were in a different setting?
Look how the line of this boy's body conveys his laziness and inattention, and how line and light define the bubbles as opalescent and spherical.
And of course, look at how pastel color is used in this lovely portrait of Mrs. Monet.
I'm not going to mention all of them, but it was a fun morning to see how far we have all come.
In the afternoon we were back to comparing and contrasting in the Ancient World galleries.
Joan compared Osiris and Isis. She had a great cardboard and fabric "crown" in the shape of the Two-feather crown worn by Osiris in the statue. I think kids would love that. She used elements of art to discuss Osiris - she had a diagram inscribed with all the triangles found in his shape. Then she asked about shapes in Isis, who has many more circles and rectangles.
Claudia compared this funerary stela to the four canopic jars in the mummy case. She emphasized the use of animals and the funerary practice of taking into the afterlife symbols of things one would need for the new life. Her activity involved trying to guess which canopic jar held which organ - stomach, intestines, liver or lungs.
Morgan compared these two mummy masks, one elegantly gilded with painted symbols and jewels and some inset stones, the other painted, in a different shape and material.
We then moved to Greece, where Kate did a great job comparing an amphora from the late geometric period (just starting to use figures) to an even more ancient figurine of a goddess or priestess. She defined amphora for us as a vessel or vase which might be used to store wine, grain, oil (good thing, as today was heavily "amphoric"), but told us that this one was a funerary amphora (you can see on the neck, the deceased is laid out on the funeral bier, with the checkered shroud raised to reveal the body. The couch is surrounded by women who tear at their hair in grief.) There are snakes molded separately and applied to the vase. Kate pointed out the snake in the hand of the goddess figurine to pull them together. She handed out a sheet of paper and intended to do an activity with us, "I observe . . . ., I wonder. . . ." but ran out of time. John thought that would have been a wonderful thing to do. I think it would have worked especially well with the amphora.
Ann compared two amphora, both "black-figured." She handed out pipe cleaners so that we could shape our own, and compared the art on the two, one of which had painting in one place, and the other which was painted all around. She talked about the process of painting, and how a vase painted by one person working alone would be different than one painted by a workshop of many people. She asked good questions about how a group of people working together would have decorated the vase so evenly.
Joyce also used the amphora, which depicts the third of Herakles' labors, the capture of the wild Erymanthian boar, but interestingly she compared it to a round mosaic. She tied them together by focusing on the use of animals as symbols. This fragment of a floor mosaic depicts the birth of Mithras, a Persian creation god. Mithras is usually depicted flanked by his two attendants, and accompanied by a dog, raven, snake, and scorpion.
Overall, it made for a long afternoon to listen to so many presentations together, but there were great objects here to use and lots of ideas of different themes to pull them together. This was a very full day!
Joan compared Osiris and Isis. She had a great cardboard and fabric "crown" in the shape of the Two-feather crown worn by Osiris in the statue. I think kids would love that. She used elements of art to discuss Osiris - she had a diagram inscribed with all the triangles found in his shape. Then she asked about shapes in Isis, who has many more circles and rectangles.
Claudia compared this funerary stela to the four canopic jars in the mummy case. She emphasized the use of animals and the funerary practice of taking into the afterlife symbols of things one would need for the new life. Her activity involved trying to guess which canopic jar held which organ - stomach, intestines, liver or lungs.
Morgan compared these two mummy masks, one elegantly gilded with painted symbols and jewels and some inset stones, the other painted, in a different shape and material.
We then moved to Greece, where Kate did a great job comparing an amphora from the late geometric period (just starting to use figures) to an even more ancient figurine of a goddess or priestess. She defined amphora for us as a vessel or vase which might be used to store wine, grain, oil (good thing, as today was heavily "amphoric"), but told us that this one was a funerary amphora (you can see on the neck, the deceased is laid out on the funeral bier, with the checkered shroud raised to reveal the body. The couch is surrounded by women who tear at their hair in grief.) There are snakes molded separately and applied to the vase. Kate pointed out the snake in the hand of the goddess figurine to pull them together. She handed out a sheet of paper and intended to do an activity with us, "I observe . . . ., I wonder. . . ." but ran out of time. John thought that would have been a wonderful thing to do. I think it would have worked especially well with the amphora.
Ann compared two amphora, both "black-figured." She handed out pipe cleaners so that we could shape our own, and compared the art on the two, one of which had painting in one place, and the other which was painted all around. She talked about the process of painting, and how a vase painted by one person working alone would be different than one painted by a workshop of many people. She asked good questions about how a group of people working together would have decorated the vase so evenly.
Joyce also used the amphora, which depicts the third of Herakles' labors, the capture of the wild Erymanthian boar, but interestingly she compared it to a round mosaic. She tied them together by focusing on the use of animals as symbols. This fragment of a floor mosaic depicts the birth of Mithras, a Persian creation god. Mithras is usually depicted flanked by his two attendants, and accompanied by a dog, raven, snake, and scorpion.
Overall, it made for a long afternoon to listen to so many presentations together, but there were great objects here to use and lots of ideas of different themes to pull them together. This was a very full day!
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