Notes of Lessons: Picture Study, Class II

[We have thought that it might be of use to our readers (in their own families) to publish from month to month during the current year, Notes of Lessons prepared by students of the House of Education for the pupils of the Practising School. We should like to say, however, that such a Lesson is never given as a tour de force, but is always an illustration or an expansion of some part of the children’s regular studies (in the Parents’ Review School), some passage in one or other of their school books.—Ed.]

Subject: Picture Talk • Class II

By A. P. Whittall
The Parents’ Review, 1906, pp. 494-495

Objects

I. To stimulate the children’s appreciation of art.

II. To make them more familiar with Dürer, one of the great masters.

III. To give them some idea of Dürer’s style.

IV. To cultivate the habits of observation and attention by letting them study the picture, “St. Jerome in the Desert,” for themselves.

Lesson

Step I.—Ask the children what artist’s pictures they are studying this term.

Step II.—Give them a short account of Dürer’s life, mentioning the century, but avoiding dates. Though this account be necessarily brief, introduce a few interesting details so that the children may gain some ideas.

Step III.—Show some pictures, telling the children to notice how very different from each other they are.

Step IV.—Give them a picture of “St. Jerome in the Desert,” and tell them to look at it carefully.

Step V.—After they have studied it well, draw from them all the points of the picture.

Step VI.—Tell them that St. Jerome is beating his breast with a stone. Point out the crucifix at which he is gazing.

Step VII.—Help them to see the extremes of light and shade. Point out that the desert in the picture is not like our idea of a desert, and ask why not.

Step VIII.—Tell the children that St. Jerome is always represented with a lion, as, when he went into the desert to escape from the world, he is said to have tamed the lions.

Step IX.—Ask them to draw in a few simple lines what they have noticed in the picture they have been studying, and let them tell the meaning of the lines they have drawn.