Tuesday, 30 November 2021
Response to text: Donatello
Donatello
Highlight the correct answer, or type in what you think is correct.
1. What materials was Donatello working with?
a) platinum b) diamond
c) titanium d) wax
2. What city was Donatello born in?
a) Florence b) Milan
c) Italy d) Vinci
3. While developing his craft, who did Donatello study with?
a) Donato di Niccolo Bardi b) Lorenzo Ghiberti
c) Battistero di San Giovanni d) Fillppo Brunelleschi
4. List some of the materials that Dontatello used for his masterpieces?
Wax, stone, bronze, clay and wood.
5. True or False: The statue ‘David’ is the first known free-standing nude statue made since antiquity.
a) True b) False
Article: Donatello
Donatello
Source: kiddle.co & donatello.net
Introduction: (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, c. 1386 – 13 December 1466) was an Italian sculptor during the Renaissance. He lived in Florence. He worked in stone, bronze, wood, clay, and wax with several assistants. His reputation as a great artist was stated by Vasari, and has always stood well. He worked in Rome, Sienna and Padua as well as Florence, and worked for the Church, for Cosimo de' Medici, and for various city authorities.
History: He was the son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, and was born in Florence. His mother's name is not known. When Donatello was older, he studied with Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect. He also helped the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti to make statues for the Battistero di San Giovanni.
Art: Donatello's work was inspired by ancient sculpture. He was the first sculptor of his time to celebrate the human body, an idea that had died out after Greek and Roman times. His life-size statue of David is his best-known work. The David is the first known free-standing nude statue made since antiquity. Much of his work was done for display in grand churches. Between 1415 and 1426, he made five statues for the Florence Cathedral, also known as the Duomo.
Donatello was a realist: an artist whose sculpture showed the subjects as real people. Naturalism and the showing of human feelings are his influences.
Other works: Donatello did not confine himself to stone and metal as media for his sculptures. He produced a carved wood statue, Penitent Magdalene, around 1450, for the Baptistery of Florence. The statue was groundbreaking in Renaissance Christian art for its realism and the unique vision of Mary Magdalene as one who is wasted away from fasting rather than healthy and beautiful as she appears in earlier art.
Contrary to today's conception of the starving artist, Donatello enjoyed fame, acclaim and financial success during his lifetime. While this is largely due to his own talent, artistic vision, and love of innovation, his close relationship with the Medici family didn't hurt, providing him with a reliable source of commissions.
Despite being a celebrated artist of his day, Donatello was not generally well-liked as a person. He was known to destroy a sculpture sooner than allowing someone he didn't approve of to buy it. He highly valued his artistic freedom, and he earned a reputation in society for being abrasive. Under the protection of the Medici family, the artist did not have to worry about the repercussions of his antisocial behavior.
Monday, 29 November 2021
Response to text: Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci
Highlight the correct answer, or type in what you think is correct.
1. What type of artwork was Leonardo Da Vinci popular for?
a) Sculptor b) photographer
c) Painter d) Mathematician
2. What city was Leonardo Da Vinci born in?
a) Florence b) Milan
c) Italy d) Vinci
3. What was Leonardo Da Vinci’s mother’s occupation?
a) model of Mona Lisa b) painter
c) servant d) Influencer
4. List some of the characters that Leonardo Da Vinci was renowned for?
Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.
5. True or False: The ‘Mona Lisa’ was a mysterious woman with an uncanny expression?
a) True b) False
Article: Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci
Source: kiddle.co
Introduction: Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian man who lived in the time of the Renaissance. He is famous for his paintings, but he was also a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and a writer. Leonardo wanted to know everything about nature. He wanted to know how everything worked. He was very good at studying, designing and making all sorts of interesting things.
History: Leonardo was born on 15 April 1452, in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the valley of the Arno River. Leonardo's parents were not married. His father was a Notary, Ser Piero da Vinci. His mother, Caterina, was a servant. Leonardo's full name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", which means "Leonardo, the son of Messer (Mister) Pierdaom Vinci". He was trained to be an artist by the sculptor and painter Verrocchio. He spent most of his life working for rich Italian noblemen. In his last years, he lived in a beautiful home given to him by the King of France.
Art: Leonardo started painting while he was still a boy. At an early age his father took his son's painting to Florence and sold it to an art dealer. In 1466, when Leonardo was fourteen, his father took him to Florence, to be an apprentice to the artist Verrocchio.
Two of his pictures are among the best-known paintings in the world: the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He did many drawings. The best-known drawing is Vitruvian Man. Leonardo was often thinking of new inventions.
In about 1503 Leonardo began painting the portrait of a woman known as Mona Lisa, the most famous portrait that has ever been painted. He continued working on it for many years. It is a small picture, painted in oil on a wooden panel. It shows the face, upper body and hands of a woman. She is very plainly dressed. For a portrait, a woman would usually put on her best clothes and jewellery. Mona Lisa has a dark dress and a fine black veil over her head. Leonardo often left symbols in his paintings that give clues about the person. The unusual thing about this picture is the smile. The smile is the clue to her name: Mona Lisa Giacondo. Giacondo means "the joking one". (Mona is short for Madonna which means "My Lady".)
The reason why the painting is so famous is that it seems to be full of mystery. Mona Lisa's eyes look out at the viewer. But no-one can guess what she is thinking. Her eyes and her mouth seem to be smiling. This is very unusual in a portrait painting. Most people in portraits look very serious. It is hard to tell what Mona Lisa's exact expression is. When a person wants to read another person's feelings, they look at the corners of their mouth and eyes. But Leonardo has painted soft shadows in the corners of Mona Lisa's mouth and eyes, to disguise her expression. The soft shadows are also found on the sides of her face, her neck and hands. The way that Leonardo uses shadow is called "sfumato" (which is an Italian word for "smoke"). Vasari said that the picture was so beautifully painted that every other artist who looked at it thought that they could never paint so well.
Leonardo's other important painting in Milan is the Last Supper. The painting shows the last meal shared by Jesus with his disciples, before his capture and death. Leonardo chose to paint the moment when Jesus has said "one of you will betray me". Leonardo tells the story of the surprise and upset that this caused to the twelve followers of Jesus. He tells the story through the actions and faces of the people in the painting. Some of them are talking, some of them have stood up, some are raising their hands in horror.
He kept notebooks with notes and drawings of these ideas. Most of his inventions were never made. Some of his ideas were a helicopter, a tank, a calculator, a parachute, a robot, a telephone, evolution, and solar power.
Friday, 26 November 2021
Thursday, 25 November 2021
Response to text.
Comic Art
Highlight the correct answer, or type in what you think is correct.
1. As a child Raina Telgemeier loved
a) dolls b) comics
c) sports d) cooking
2. Raina said that there was a shortage of comics about
a) Superheroes b) Villains
c) newspaper articles d) stories that she could relate to
3. In your own words, explain what Raina’s comic book ‘Smile’ was about:
It’s about Telgemeier’s middle school experiences with braces and dental surgery.
4. True or False: Raina’s comic book ‘Smile’ was not very popular with kids:
a) True b) False
5. True or False: Raina Telgemeier has had more than 18 million copies of her books printed:
a) True b) False
6. An important award in children’s literature is called the
a) Academy Awards b) Duffy Award
c) Newbery Award d) Pulitzer Prize
article
Comic Art - Raina Telgemeier
Source: timeforkids.com
When Raina Telgemeier was a kid in the 1980s, she fell in love with comics. “They were the perfect combination of all the things I liked: characters and stories and humor and artwork,” she told TIME for Kids.
But she had a problem: a shortage of reading material. Two types of comics were widely available to kids. There were comic books about superheroes. But those weren’t her thing. She wanted comics that told stories she could relate to as an ordinary kid. And there were newspaper comic strips. Telgemeier loved some of them, especially Calvin and Hobbes. But she wanted more.
At around 10, she started drawing her own comics. Twenty-three years later, she published Smile. It’s about Telgemeier’s middle school experiences with braces and dental surgery.
Before Smile was published, in 2010, it wasn’t clear the book would succeed. People in the publishing industry had doubts. They figured kids wouldn’t enjoy a graphic novel about an average girl.
They were wrong. Smile became a Number 1 best-seller. Since then, Telgemeier has published several more popular graphic novels. There are more than 18 million copies of her books in print. Telgemeier’s success has made a big impact. Industry experts say she paved the way for many more graphic novels for kids.
Comics have been around since at least the 19th century. Traditional comic books are short. Often, they’re about adventure or superheroes. “Comics have this history . . . of either being very funny and silly or having a lot of punching of things,” Gina Gagliano says. She works on graphic novels at Random House. That’s a publishing company.
Today’s graphic novels are different. Authors use comics to tell a book-length story. It can be any genre. It can be realistic.
In 2018, sales of graphic novels for kids and teens jumped by more than 50%. Compare that to sales of printed books across all categories. They increased by about 1%.
As sales boom, attitudes about comics are changing. This year, New Kid became the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal. That’s a prestigious award in children’s literature.
New Kid author Jerry Craft says that when he was a kid, he read mainly comics. He knew some adults didn’t approve. “In certain schools, if they saw you reading a comic, they would confiscate it, because they thought it was rotting your brain,” he says. “They didn’t realize the amount of imagination and storytelling and vocabulary in those comics.”
New Kid’s Newbery shows what many kids already understood: Graphic novels are real books. “It’s a victory for all graphic novels,” Craft says.
Wednesday, 24 November 2021
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