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A continuation of a phenomenological approach to the arts and art history as it pertains to painting, sculpture, and architecture - focusing now on the Early Christian through Renaissance periods. Classes serve as a forum for discussions on how to bring the material to life and relevance at the various stages of adolescence.
The first week of this course is designed to give students a hands-on experience of the evolution of pictorial space from the late Middle Ages through the perspective explorations of the Renaissance.
1) After looking at reproductions of a fresco taken from the villa at Boscoreale near Pompeii that were done in the first century B.C., the students try to reproduce the spatial system of the drawing. This fresco is an example of an axial system of perspective that was not be revived until the early Renaissance. After drawing, we discuss the problems of rendering space from a particular vantage point.
2) After looking at reproductions of Giotto and Cimabue, the students engage in a drawing exercise using the technique of orthographic projection. Using hand-held measuring sticks to measure ratio and proportion, the students draw an assemblage of regular geometric forms, books, desks, or cardboard boxes. The drawings will be done to transfer the ratios present in the assemblage onto the paper. This drawing technique was the basis for the later development of linear perspective.
3) After looking at reproductions of Albrecht Durer, the students engage in a drawing exercise using a vanishing point instead of ratio and proportion rendered through a measuring stick. The students draw the same assemblage of objects as the previous day. After the drawing is completed, a conversation develops around the spatial experiences found in each approach to rendering space. The simple, one-point perspective represents what is known mathematically as a projector.
4) After looking at reproductions of a Cezanne still life, the students draw from a still life, including multiple vantage points on one drawing. This approach to space was the door for Cubism to emerge as the turning point in modern art. Students discuss how multiple vantage points reflect changes brought about by industrialism.
5) Using the techniques of projective geometry, the students make a series of drawings that show the activity of projectors. Special attention is paid to the role of the projector in optical systems that have paralleled the development of the artistic approaches worked through in the previous drawings.
During the second and third weeks, we continue our study of artistic themes and impulses from early Christianity through the Renaissance, with the emphasis on those aspects highlighted in the ninth and tenth grade art history curriculum. Included are the extraordinary blossoming of Gothic architecture and the underlying tendencies towards the "impressionistic" and "expressionistic" in Renaissance painting.
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