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ALmom
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| Posted: Sept 30 2009 at 4:48pm | IP Logged
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Edited to correct an incorrect ID of the artist  . I thought it was a Murillo but looked on the back and the painting was by Rosa. I'll be googling to see what I can learn about him. I have no idea who this artist is. This image is from the Faith and Life texts. We are definitely learning together.
Ok, we just had a wonderful presentation at our teacher's meeting by one of our own moderators (thanks Jennifer) on presenting fine arts. She inspired us and had some really practical pointers and lots of encouragement. Impetuously we just jumped into this in a very unplanned way. My family began by choosing 3 images - one for each archangel - to display the other day. I had the children pick their favorite image of each of the archangels from a stack of different images of the Annunciation, St. Michael and St. Raphael.  I really don't know what came over me - 6 children choosing favorites means chaos as they pull through all those overwhelming numbers of images - in the end we were debating over about 6 different images of the Annunciation and then we cannot display them all!! Less is really best, but I thought you guys would get a good laugh out of the way we salvaged my poor planning.
When we had things narrowed down to about 5 images of the Annunciation and 2 of each of the others, then we had to come up with how to decide which three were displayed in the kitchen. I thought we would gradually and informally talk about these as they sit on our a table in the kitchen. We started tackling the images for St. Michael and St. Raphael. At least on these, I didn't have much to eliminate. Everyone agreed on St. Raphael as it was the only painting we had of him - the other was a picture of a stained glass window. St. Michael was tougher since I didn't have any classical art image - just an old holy card that is clearly beautiful and a picture of stained glass. We decided on the stained glass in the kitchen since my 7 year old thought he was going to be able to keep his favorite images by his desk - and the other St. Michael was his favorite and he pinned it on the book shelf right by his desk. He was happy and we only had one image of St. Michael to display on the kitchen and everyone else was satisfied with the decision.
At this point, I have 5 boys getting louder and louder extolling the virtues or the vices of various images of St. Gabriel. I learned a lot about their perceptions - definitely not high browed. One rejected a painting because the angel looked silly with peacock feather wings - I mentioned that there had to be some symbol in that and we could look it up. They then became eloquent on how symbol just confused the issue and why don't they just paint it like it really is. Now, we could have had a deep discussion of angels at that point because according to their theory of art, we wouldn't be able to draw angels at all - they are spiritual creatures. Of course this could have led to a rabbit trail on the history of images and the various controversies about whether or not you could have images of God or the saints. I, you should be proud of me, wisely restrained from commenting at this point and redirected to people telling me what they did like about various paintings from which we were trying to chose only 1 to display. We did briefly mention that there were two different images of the Annunciation by the same artist - Fra Angelico- and I mentioned that one of those was my favorite. They continued to argue the merits and try to convince others that their image selection was really the best.
There would clearly be no agreement. Since I knew who had what favorites, I couldn't be unbiased. I very unkindly, without thinking, volunteered my dh to chose the image to be displayed - since he had no idea who chose what, he wouldn't be chosing for or against any child. He was rather chipper and chose one almost instantly - turns out that it was the image that only 1 child had really liked and since it has been displayed, the other children have convinced him that it is not the best image of the Annunciation. They like realism and they just cannot get past the postures of the angel and Mary in the painting by Boticelli. According to my boys, the angel looks like he is attacking Mary with a sword and Mary has her hand out trying to hold him off. Of course, I did point out the serenity on the faces. My boys were not at all appreciative of the gracefulness of the two. They also said that the background was cluttered with a bunch of stuff.
Now, the boys are taking turns turning the image around so we cannot see it - but at least that means they are looking at it every time they turn it around  . I quietly go back and turn it back around.
My plan is to do some googling this week - and get some historical information about the technical development in art and some of the things that Boticelli is noted for in the hopes of developing some greater apprciation. We did all note the striking color and I think the beatiful use of color is what attracted my 9 year old to this painting in the first place.
Honestly, the whole thing has been rather hysterical - but really I am not unhappy with how things turned out. I feel like having some engagement and debate, while a bit much for my tastes, in general, did really get them to actually look at the picture and since it wasn't an art lesson - they were quite free with their own opinions. My really art resistent is a lover of debate and coming up with reasons why his brothers choices were not the best pick, got him to actually look at the various paintings in order to get fodder for his arguements. I'll take that as a good start.
I also do plan to google peacock feathers, art and symbol and see what happens. There has to be a reason for it. We can mention it in passing or file it away the next time we look at that image.
The images on our kitchen hutch are by Boticelli, a stained glass image of St. Michael and Rosa painting of St. Raphael. It is kind of intrigueing to me to see different artists side by side - though of different subjects. I'm wondering if I will develop the ability to recognize a particular artist's style over time if we keep doing this.
I know most of you guys are way more artsy than I am and I am grateful to you all for inspiring us to keep on trying to not let fine arts fall off the table. Keeping things informal and unpressured and allowing our sons to be who they are (boisterous boys who would much rather blow something up than look at a painting)and argue (as long as it was friendly and civil) made this something we all had fun doing - ie we will be doing this again - though next time I'll try to keep the selection down to something less than 15 paintings to chose from - ie a bit more manageable - maybe 2 or 3. It might be fun to display 2 related paintings by different artists and compare. We really did have fun and the debate did focus our attention on various details.
I thought you all would get a good laugh, in any case, over the insanity of asking 5 boys to chose 1 painting out of 15 or more. I needed a good cup of tea and some peace and quiet after we displayed our finally chosen paintings - but we did have fun, we did look at the paintings and we all had some input into the whole thing.
Janet
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Paula in MN
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| Posted: Sept 30 2009 at 5:00pm | IP Logged
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Janet, this actually sounds like fun to me! My homeschool days are so quiet now with only one at home. I think your day sounds wonderful!
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 Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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ekbell
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| Posted: Sept 30 2009 at 7:09pm | IP Logged
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I think peacocks have something to do with eyes and seeing, let's see....
Art 5 for Young Catholics] explains the peacock-type feathers in one of Fra Angelico's pictures of the annunication as follows "Note the wings' peacock-type of feathers with 'eyes', symbolizing the all-seeing eyes of the Heavenly Father". Looks like my vague memory was correct. 
The symbolism is more explict in this mosiac
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garden_of_eden_mosaic .jpg where the seraphim has actual eyes over it's wings
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MaryM
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| Posted: Oct 01 2009 at 4:22am | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
| Ok, we just had a wonderful presentation at our teacher's meeting by one of our own moderators (thanks Jennifer) on presenting fine arts. She inspired us and had some really practical pointers and lots of encouragement. |
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I enjoyed hearing how your art study went, Janet. The archangel images are a great one to look at and do a study of.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 01 2009 at 11:03am | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
| Ok, we just had a wonderful presentation at our teacher's meeting by one of our own moderators (thanks Jennifer) on presenting fine arts. She inspired us and had some really practical pointers and lots of encouragement. |
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Oh, I'm so glad, Janet! I had so much fun with all of you...and I love the subject!
It always overjoys me to hear how you and others take ideas and translate them into your own homes to make them work for your family! I LOVE hearing about your approach, and how you are so relaxed with the moment, and the children's responses. It's PERFECT! And, all good!
I did post my notes from the art study talk I gave - A Place for Beauty in the Day - and I added several links (cause what's a post without a bouquet of links?  ). I wanted to address the idea of signs and symbols in art, though not with the hope of converting your son...  ...just because I feel like I failed to convey the importance of it in my talk, and you mentioned it specifically.
Quote:
Often, if not always, objects in art convey symbols. The early Christian saw God in everything. I spoke a bit about the importance of Liturgical Displays in the home already, and the meaning they convey through images. St. Gregory the Great wrote that, "painting is employed in churches so that those who cannot read or write may at least read on the walls what they cannot decipher on the page." (letter to Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles, written in 599)
One of our favorite parts of art appreciation is hunting for the symbolism used in sacred art. The internet can be helpful in uncovering some of these mysteries, and I also very much like George Ferguson’s book Signs & Symbols in Christian Art. Let me share with you the great importance of uncovering the hidden meaning in a piece of art in George Ferguson's own words:
"God has given the soul the privilege of enjoying a continuous awareness of the realities of life. These realities may be described as the never-ending experiences man has with truth, beauty, and goodness. These experiences are so vital and moving that man has a constant urge to impart them to others. It is in this act of sharing them that he gives witness to the truth that he is indeed made in the image of God.
There is a language for these experiences. It is a very simple and beautiful language which man has known and used since the beginning of time. It is called the language of the sign and symbol, the outward and visible form through which is revealed the inward and invisible reality that moves and directs the soul of a man." |
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I don't know if this is a good introductory explanation, but I still love how you thought that even if your son didn't enjoy or appreciate the round about way of conveying an idea through symbolism, he still had to look at it to disagree with it. It's a start.
Interestingly, I looked up peacock feathers for you...
Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (Peacock) wrote:
| In Christian art the peacock is used as the symbol of immortality. This symbol is derived from the legendary belief that the flesh of the peacock does not decay. It is with this meaning that it appears in all the signs of the Nativity. The 'hundred eyes' peacock's tail are sometimes used to symbolize the 'all seeing' Church... |
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I'm so glad your moment of art appreciation with 5 boys that would rather build swords than decipher oranges out of art went so well, if not a bit wildly! Here's to more moments of loveliness...and debate!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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ALmom
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| Posted: Oct 01 2009 at 4:30pm | IP Logged
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Thanks everyone. I'm looking forward to doing more with all of this. I appreciate the reference more directly to the book on symbols (it is on my want to buy list) - at least one of mine does appreciate this and I suspect the 9 year old does more than he is willing to admit to his older brother.
My 12 year old scientist, who also is an art lover, chose his painting because of the symbol - so we have full ranging debate here. I also just went out to Michaels and let him pick out some quality art supplies - we'll all share them, but he has an idea of what to pick because of the art class he is taking. He also needed another nature sketch book. He is doing a pointulism drawing for his art class (his favorite co-op class)and his interest in art started from his nature studies. I have a whole bunch of Audobon paintings as well so I'm getting ready to form folders of paintings according to artists names. I'm sure he'll enjoy those. I'm hoping they get to see the Beaver again - and draw it. If you are up for a really, really long hike, and come armed with Ivy X or something and tick repellent, then the boys could show us where they consistently see a beaver and almost stepped on a very young fawn.
Your post, Jennifer, gave me some ideas for adding parameters to selections or competition into the mix. Pick a painting with symbolism in it and we'll display the one with the most symbolism or some such thing. Get those boys going in a competition and they'll go back and back and back . I could even pick a painting and display it and let them tell me all the things they cannot stand about it. It seems that following a liturgical year theme - or nature drawing is the theme that will work best since I can then require the oldest boy to join in and it isn't "art wasting his time and keeping him from getting his other work done." With him, I might pull out and point out some German artists. It will be quite some time before he will be induced to create or paint. Crafts like building armor is about as close as this kid comes to art.
It is funny but since the boys described the Boticelli the way they did with the angel attacking Mary and Mary holding her hand out to hold him back, the image is burned in my brain. I never would have noticed the positions of the figures without their comments. I suspect most of us can recreate the image in our brain even if most of us don't have enough skill to actually draw it in any close proximity. I do have some art books and the Seton drawing DVDs - they are really good, if you ever want to look at some. My kids will do it (except the oldest) all the while making fun of the poor lady's pronunciation of picture.
OH, the other approach or tactic that might work is to read about the technical aspects of how they did things - how they created the paints at different times, etc. My 12 year old just gave me a whole lesson on the way the Greeks did sculpture - something about molten metal and wax forms and ....I have no idea if he is correct or not, but he seems to generally get his facts straight so I tend to believe him unless proven otherwise.
This really is exciting for us.
Janet
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: art study
