Art and Culture of The Renaissance: Story Part 1 – Grades K-3
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Docent Instructions: The word Pause is the suggested point in which to pause the story and to ask your students to share ideas with the students next to them about what they learned in the previous part of the story for approximately 1 to 3 minutes. This allows for cooperative learning to occur.
Art and Culture of The Renaissance: Story Part 1 – Grades K-3
Copyright Denise T. Federico 6/03/05
“Look, ninjas in masks.
Who are they?” Everyone in the class was shouting at once. Ms. Levine hushed the group and signaled for raised hands. “OK, Jesse you’re first.”
“I know who they are, they’re Michelangelo in the orange mask, Raphael in the red mask, Leonardo in the blue and Donatello in the purple mask, and I know they are famous people who really lived!”
“Excellent Jesse. A local theater company is doing a play with these special ninjas and asked us for some help. They want us to suggest some other characters and some good speaking lines for each one. The name of the play is Art and Culture of The Renaissance.”
“Now I heard Lisa ask why do they have long strange names, not like ours. That’s because these famous people came from the Renaissance time. Renaissance is a French word that means rebirth, or to be born again. This time began long ago in the 1300s after The Middle Ages, in Florence, Italy.”
“Now can anyone guess why these special ninjas wear different colored masks? Yes, I heard a lot of smart thinkers say because they are very famous artists. You kids know everything these days! How
did artists get to be so special and so famous then? Because this time artists were people who were experts in what they could do, like carpenters or cabinet makers. They used to be called tradesmen because they took what they made to town where they traded and sold it to buyers, people who needed their things.”
“Hey, said Jessie, just like I trade my ninja cards with Josh!”
“That’s right Jessie, and I’m sure you all trade something with one another. See you kids have more in common with the Renaissance then you think!”
“Now, at this time there were artists with amazing talents. And so artists became very important men, because everyone loved art and looked at art with a new appreciation and respect that they never had before.”
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[/one_half_last]”These artists of the High Renaissance had such awesome talents. But they also became known and famous because at this time many patrons who loved art paid for their art. Like in The Middle Ages time, the Church was a patron of art. But in The Renaissance time, there were no smartphones, iPads; in fact there weren’t any cameras at all. But the important people, called nobles,
who were the royalty of the town, wanted pictures of themselves and their families, which are called portraits, to show how important they were and to last in history. But since there were no cameras, very good artists had to draw and paint their portraits. During The Middle Ages the art of portraits had been forgotten about. But now in the Renaissance, portraits were wanted and very popular.”[one_third]
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“The Renaissance in painting began with Giotto. I’m sure you will want to add Giotto as another special character to the play. So you’ll need to pick a color for his mask, and a good line or two for him to say.”
“Giotto was a shepherd boy who loved to draw on slabs of stone as he guarded his flock. When he was only twelve years old, an artist named Cimabue saw his talent and was amazed. He asked
Giotto’s father to let him study art with him as his apprentice or student.”
“Hey just like that show on TV my parents watch about the apprentice for the guy with that funny hair,” said Josh.
“Well yes, Josh, I guess back in the Renaissance, Donald Trump would be a noble, and he would have an apprentice. But that was also how young boys learned to be artists then. As an apprentice, they had to learn many things as well as paint. They learned to sculpt and to do architecture from their master teacher and they had to learn how to become a carpenter to be able to make altarpieces and make panels. He learned how to grind the colors for paint, because paint did not come in tubes like today. Then they learned to mix the ground paint powder with egg yolk which made tempera paint.”
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“The apprentice learned to paint portraits or altarpieces on a wooden board or panel. They also learned to paint on walls called frescoes. This was not easy because they had to put a coat of plaster on the wall and then paint on the wall while it was still wet. The paint seeps in and when the plaster dries, the picture becomes part of the wall itself!”[one_third]
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“Gee, Ms. Levine,” said Sophia, “my mom gets mad at me when I draw on the walls!”
“And so would I, so don’t get any ideas about frescoes here in the classroom – but that is a great idea for making the scenery for the play!”
“Now, Giotto was so talented that very soon he became a better artist than his teacher. In fact, he became the most famous painter of his time. He totally changed art. Giotto painted people that were more like real life than before. Before, people were painted flat. Giotto was the first artist to breathe life into his figures. And he was also one of the first artists to show perspective.[one_half]
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This is what makes things in a painting look either closer to you or farther away. Giotto inspired all the painters of The Renaissance time to continue on with this naturalistic style.”[one_half]
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It is important to note that Giotto showed great emotion on the expression of the faces of the people in his paintings, which showed their involvement in the scene he was creating. He was very aware of the world around him and often included many species of tiny plants in his paintings. He is known as the ‘Father of The Renaissance.’ ”
“Sandra, I see you have some lines for Giotto to speak in the play and a mask color? Go ahead Sandra.”[one_half]
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“Well, Giotto should be gold because there is a lot of gold in his paintings. Giotto says, “In my painting called ‘The Adoration of the Magi,’ notice the expression on the faces on the three Kings, called Magi and that Halley’s Comet in the distance on top of the painting demonstrates perspective, showing things that are close and things that are far away. ‘Great job, Sandra!’ ”
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“The most important artists from the High Renaissance, a time which is a little later than Giotto’s time, are from the 1500s in Italy. This was one of the greatest times of art history because there was an explosion of creativity. Some very important things happened that helped to make the people so full of energy and creative ideas at this time. People were finding out so much about the world around them that they never knew before. Marco Polo went on his adventures and voyages to the East to China.[one_half]
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Columbus went on his adventures and voyages to the West to the Americas. The printing press was invented so people could read more books. Remember that books until then could only be copied by hand. When people read more books they began to have more ideas.
Also people were interested in digging up ancient statues and buildings that were buried for thousands of years from the Classical Period of Ancient Greece and Rome. They wanted to study them and learn more. People were thinking all sorts of new thoughts and ideas!”[one_half]
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“Now I hear some great suggestions to add Marco Polo, Columbus, and the printing press inventor, Gutenberg,
to the play, good thinking! And Luis has three suggestions for mask colors and lines. Go for it.”
“Well, Marco Polo has a pink mask and he says – ‘You see this fine mask; it is like none of the others, because it is made of silk, a magical fabric I brought back from the East.’
Columbus is green and he says I believe we will learn much from this new land and these new people who live here. The printing press inventor has a black mask like the print in books. He says, ‘Now, everyone can read great stories in books!’”
“Now, we are finally getting to the four famous masked ninjas Jesse named, and we will see how they become so famous. But it will have to wait until our next session.”