If I was teaching students how to analyse the painting Da Vinci's Last Supper ; I would ask the question "How do you think these people may have been feeling.?"
I would project the painting on the wall using LCD Projector and ask the students to analyze each actor within the panorama.
To allow a detective like ambience arrange the students in teams of "Think Pair Share."
Provide a list of questions like this.
- How do you think Jesus was feeling? How do you know?
- Look at each discipline and ask the students to play detective. Invite them to work out which disciple each one is and why?
- Expect them to look at the composition together.
Questions about each of the seven elements of design would look something like this,
- is point a dominant designal element of this composition?
- explain how the shapes are arranged?
- tell the story of how the lines lead the eye through the picture composition
- how did the artist use colour to convey emotion?
- talk about the use of texture within the picture plane and how was it created
- in what way is contrast an important feature of this depiction?
- how is perspective used to convey a sense of space and atmosphere?
As they look at the composition in this way the students will refer continually to the story of the last supper. They will be trying to unpack methodology and experience the contextualization of the pictorial representation. They will find themselves attempting to explain how the artist was trying to influence the viewer emotively. They will gain a sense of evocation. This will stimulate realisation that perhaps they too can influence the viewer of the artworks they create.
As you teach and companion persist with this way of viewing artwork. Over a period, the students will become more discerning when ‘decontextualising’ art and other forms of media. The process will bring them to an understanding of the psychology of influence. Continually guide them through the idea that we as consumers are subject to the same intentional psychologically constructed influences. This type of learning is often called 'resistant reading of text.'
The ability to read text resistantly is desirable because it allows children and adolescents a sense of personal chosen identity. They begin to choose sets of personal values rather than passively absorb ideas and core values from their environment. The idea of resistance gives them a sense of empowerment when faced with peer pressure or other forms of exploitation and undesired influence. The student becomes mutli-dimensional when he or she realises that there are many ways to view the world and that “how we choose to see things” can be a matter of personal choice.
If you would like to read more about this way of seeing ‘resistant reading’ you might want to read
Henry A Giroux “Stealing Innocence.”
More activites for Easter
