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Classroom use of the art print

Arts & Activities, Feb, 2005 by Rogier van der Weyden

Rogier van der Weyden (Flemish; about 1400-1464). Saint Luke Drawing a Portrait of the Virgin, about 1435-40. Oil and tempera on panel; 54 1/8" x 435/s". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

THINGS TO LEARN

* During the later Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, the art of Europe was divided. Art produced in the northern countries of Germany, Holland, Flanders, and northern France continued to be more Gothic than than the art of southern Europe. In Italy, for example, art rapidly became much more colorful and realistic.

Students can advance their understanding of this difference by getting to know examples of both northern and southern works of art from about the same time, starting with paintings by Rogier van der Weyden.

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* In order to have a better understanding of exactly where the country of Flanders (Belguim) is, students may need to study a map of Europe and also find the cities of Tournai and Brussels. Tournai has remained a small town but Brussels is now a large city and is the capital of Belgium.

Having found Tournai and Brussels on the map, students may be interested to learn about another important Belgian city, Antwerp, where later the distinguished Flemish artist, Peter Paul Rubens, lived and worked.

* Until recently, the only way a young person could train for many kinds of skilled work was to become an apprentice to a person (a master) already skilled in that kind of work. An apprentice (or his father) signed a contract with a master and agreed to remain with the master for several years while working and learning a particular craft. During this time, the master agreed to feed and clothe the apprentice and also give him a place to stay-usually in his own home.

After his apprenticeship ended, a young man was qualified to establish himself in his own workshop and become a member of a guild. A guild was a local organization of craftsmen or artists who maintained quality of work and guarded their privileges in a town or city.

THINGS TO DO

* Students may improve their ability to draw and paint clothing by setting up still lifes composed of heavy drapery. Using paintings such as the one reproduced here for guidance, they can practice rendering the way hanging cloth bends and folds. While people no longer wear such heavy robes, starting with heavy cloth (a blanket, perhaps) is easier than the lighter, thinner kind of clothing people wear today.

* The idea of including a portrait of someone they know--or a self-portrait--in their own work may appeal to students. It will require them to make careful drawings in advance of the final pictures to try and make sure the portrait is accurate. It also presents students with an important problem to solve in their picture, where the inserted portrait fits well into the composition--and belongs properly on the body to which it is attached and that it is the proper size.

* Showing depth on the flat surface of a picture has challenged artists for centuries and continues to challenge students in school. Using reproductions like this one, students can add backgrounds to their own pictures--preferably of places they know.

In order to get started, they may find it useful to copy a background from an existing picture into a sketchbook. They might then alter the copy to make it truly their own before drawing it in a finished picture. Alternatively, they may first sketch a view out of the art room window.

* In this painting, Rogier van der Weyden was probably helped by one or more of his apprentices. The more advanced apprentices might paint parts of the picture while others might prepare the paints and perform such jobs as cleaning np and washing brushes.

With the idea that the artist did not do all the painting himself as artists usually do today, students might be interested in trying to imagine which parts were most likely to have been done by the artist and which might have been done by apprentices. For example, the portrait of the artist was almost certainly painted by the master, whereas the design of the floor might well have been painted by a senior apprentice.

BUILDING A PICTURE FILE

This painting may be used to illustrate various art teaching needs. Potentially useful picture-file categories include: "Religious Subjects"; "Self-Portraits"; and "Flemish Artists: Rogier van der Weyden."

For ideas about collecting and retrieving pictures to help in teaching art and other subjects, readers are invited to write to: Guy Hubbard c/o Arts & Activities, 12345 World Trade Drive, San Diego, CA 92128. E-mail: hubbard@indiana.edu.

Classroom use of the art print

Arts & Activities, Feb, 2005 by Rogier van der Weyden

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