Title: Baroque contrasts

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

Baroque contrasts.

Target group:

1st‑grade students of a high school.

Core curriculum

Basic level

I. Literary and cultural education.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

1) processes and hierarchizes information from texts, such as journalistic, popular science and scientific;

6) reads non‑literary cultural texts, using the code proper in a given field of art.

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

1) formulates theses and arguments in oral and written speech using appropriate syntactic constructions.

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

1) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion;

2) build a statement in a conscious manner, with the knowledge of its language function, taking into account the purpose and the addressee, keeping the principles of rhetoric;

10) in the interpretation presents a proposal to read the text, formulates arguments on the basis of the text and known contexts, including personal experience, and carries out a logical argument for the validation of formulated judgments.

IV. Self‑study. Student:

1. develops the ability of independent work, inter alia, by preparing various forms of presenting their own position;

2. organises information into the problematic whole by valuing it; synthesizes the learned content around the problem, topic, issue and uses it in your statements;

3. uses scientific or popular science literature;

11. uses multimedia resources, e.g. from: libraries, on‑line dictionaries, e‑book publications, original websites; selects web sources, taking into account the criterion of material correctness and critically evaluates their content.

Advanced level

I. Literary and cultural education.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

2) uses scientific texts in the interpretation of a work of art;

5) recognises and characterizes the main styles in architecture and art.

General aim of education

Pupils describe and interpret works of baroque painting.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• talks about the contrast in the art of Baroque;

• explains the concepts: pathos, theatralization, sacrum, profanum, asceticism, the beauty of life;

• describes and interprets works of Baroque painting.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students refer to the abstract content. They shall be able to summarize it in they own words and solve the exercices.

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the classes, which is to learn about Baroque paintings. It gives students the criteria for success.

2. The teacher notes the word CONTRAST on the board and asks students to give their associations. The chosen student notes the suggestions of colleagues on the board. Then the students decide together which. from the given associations may refer to art (eg painting). The teacher goes to talk about the specifics of Baroque art. He asks students whether they can determine the contrasts of Baroque art based on the information they have collected. If necessary, he adds, for example in the works of Baroque masters, what is real, combined with appearances, the sacred - with profanum, asceticism - with the beauty of life and with lavishness and glamor. He asks what events could have influenced Baroque art to be characterized by the wealth and splendor of forms (Counter‑Reformation). He draws attention to the role of theatralization and light.

Realization

1. The teacher displays a portrait of Ludwika XIV [e‑textbook] on the board. He says that the first feature to pay attention to is pathos and theatricality. He asks students to look at the portrait of Louis XIV and exchange the elements of the work that allow to say that it implements the mentioned feature.

2. Students read the text of Krystyna Secomska describing the above portrait of the „King of the Sun”. Then they exchange the features of the Baroque art described by the researcher. They pay attention to the ones that they missed, describing the picture.

3. Another feature of Baroque art is the combination of sacrum and profanum. Students wonder what the terms mean. Complete the definitions included in task 3 in the manual.

4. The teacher displays another painting: „Crucifixion of Saint. Peter's „Caravaggio. Students wonder why two spheres meet here: sacrum and profanum. Then they compare their answer with the text of Julian Bella. Students watch the film material concerning the interpretation of the discussed image. You can use the version with Polish subtitles or the full English version (depending on the language skills of students).

5. The students note the features of the work that characterize Baroque art.

6. The teacher displays two images (side by side): José de Ribera „Saint. Paweł Eremita „and Paul Rubens” Three Graces „. Students compare images - they look for contrast. They can use the descriptions in the manual.

7. At the end, the students perform the task of the 7th manual. In this way, they repeat the concepts associated with the art of Baroque, put them in opposing pairs.

Summary

1. The teacher chooses one student by random method and asks him or her to explain in own words the meaning of a given word or concept learned during the lesson.

2. The teacher asks students what they have learned today, whether the lesson was interesting for them. He asks them to evaluate their own work during the lesson. For this purpose, he can use a questionnaire or a decision tree prepared earlier or carry out an oral evaluation.

Homework

1. Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

2. Prepare for a discussion on the controversy of Baroque art. Prepare arguments and relevant examples to support them.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Contrasts of Baroque

Baroque art was dominated by contrasts. Reality overlapped with appearances, the sacred with the profane, asceticism with joie de vivre, zealous religiosity with splendour and lavishness. The principles of the Counter‑Reformation influenced the themes, diversity and richness of forms. Commissioned by the Church and courts, artists employed pathos, theatricalisation and illusionism to create pieces that amazes with their size and strongly arouse the senses of the spectators. Conversely, in the Protestant Netherlands, art tended to be more intimate, and was meant to calm the emotions of the recipient. Expressive and symbolic light were particularly important, permeating paintings, animating sculptures, and highlighting the architecture.

Jusepe de Rivera was a painter who combined two schools of art in his works, Spanish and Italian. The former made him more inclined towards naturalistic forms, with deep zealous religiosity imbued with mysticism; the latter, to diversity of colors and strong contrasts of light and shadow (Caravaggio’s influence). In line with contemporary trends, Ribera’s paintings were realistic and religious in theme (mostly acts of atonement and torture). He depicted anchorites and martyrs, their bodies emaciated and deformed by pain, suffering and ascesis, marked by the passage of time. The art of Peter Paul Rubens is the polar opposite: this Flemish artist took delight in sensual, soft‑bodied, full‑figured personages, perceived as an apotheosis of vitality and joie de vivre.