As part of our art appreciation study at home, we are tackling Juan Luna for a week with a focus on his awarded artwork, Spoliarium.
Spoliarium by Juan Luna, circa 1884
oil on poplar
400 × 700 cm
National Museum of the Philippines
This painting by Juan Luna garnered the gold medal given by Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884. At present, it graces the main gallery entrance at the ground floor of the National Museum of the Philippines. It is now included in our art tour itinerary in January 2009 which also includes the Amorsolo tour.
Here are some links to a more detailed study of this great artist and his art.
How we do a picture study at home in five days:
Day One. A downloaded public domain image of the art sits as a backgound image on my screen (Wikipedia is one source). The children zoom on it and have a good look to take in details on the first day.
Day Two. They try to look at it for a few minutes before we start are morning lessons. I post a careful colored printout of the picture on a wall of our learning room visible to everyone so the children can view it anytime of the day.
Day Three. They look at it again for a few minutes, but this time I ask them to narrate their observation and the details of the picture they can remember. Chances are they see more details now which they have not seen on the first and second day.
Day Four. We read related materials about the artist, his life, the history of the picture and the historical events or context when the picture was painted. I ask them to narrate information they remember from our readings.
Day Five. A copy of the reprint with their reading materials go to their art appreciation binder.
Together with picture studies, we are slowly doing our art appreciation lapbook.
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