Sarah’s Art History - Masaccio and the Early Renaissance

Hi there,

How are you all doing in these strange times? Well, here is your five minutes of distraction…

Today we are looking at Masaccio’s Virgin and Child, 1426 (in the National Gallery) Look it up at www.nationalgallery.org.uk and click on the ‘-‘ so you can see the whole image on your screen.

Questions:

1. What is the baby doing?

2. What position is his hand in?

3. How many angels are there and what are they doing?

Then watch the video!

Activities:

1. As you know Massaccio was based in Florence, the hotbed of artistic innovation during the Renaissance, so why not visit Florence virtually and do a bit of research on it? First stop – the Uffizi Gallery for art,or more generally the Renaissance (you could check out these pages: https://bit.ly/2Xgjcii or https://bit.ly/2RimFcj )!

2. Find out more about Masaccio – this is a fabulous website: https://bit.ly/2JGC1Di

3. Draw your own perspectival throne/cube/anything. Have a look online or check this out to copy: https://bit.ly/3bPX5Dk or https://bit.ly/2JKqIKw

4. Make a frame of any drawings you make with ancient Roman patterns and motifs – you can get some ideas here: https://bit.ly/3e1vb9i (if you want to be really ambitious then you can make them mosaics – cuts out little squares of coloured paper and stick them down). Then fill it with your own painting.

5. This is what the whole altarpiece would have looked like (some bits are missing) https://bit.ly/3bWZKvc . Make your own with your favourite story - choose a story, draw pictures of all the key moments of the story, then put them together like Masaccio’s altarpiece.

Our next painting will be the lovely Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano, 1438-40 in the National Gallery.

Your questions: 1. What is this a picture of and which side is winning? 2. How many people are dead? 2. The helmets are pretty fancy - which is your favourite?

Thanks for watching. Do like, follow, share! See you next time and stay safe.

Sxxx