Art Class- Part II (of two)

Class date: Tuesday, Jan. 26th

As we began class today, one student (I'll call her Rebecca) sheepishly asked if she could retrieve her literature binder which she had forgotten in another classroom.

"Perfect!" I thought to myself, "This will help illustrate the theme of today's class."

She was a little nervous because she would have to walk into a class already in session to retrieve her binder. I asked her how she felt about going. "Embarrassed!" she said. “Everyone will be staring at me!”

Upon her return we inquired how it went (yep, she noticed the stares), and we turned to some art.

We started by looking back at the three artworks we had examined during Thursday's class ("Art Class- part 1 of 2"). Despite showing vastly different subjects, the students noticed the similarities between Father Joseph, Ruby Bridges, and Venus:

1. Each of these characters was the center of attention.

2. They all seemed to be oblivious to the attention.

We then looked at a new painting:

Admiration

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/William-Adolphe_Bouguereau_(1825-1905)_-_Admiration_(1897).jpg

In the center of a bevy of young women, a young boy (with wings) stands soaking up the attention. Cupid, the young boy, is being gazed upon adoringly and, as Adan put it, “he looks flattered by all the attention.” At this point I asked the students to recall a time when they had enjoyed positive attention. I saw several smiles of recollection: showing off a beautiful dress, receiving applause at a recital, etc.... In the painting, the young women corral their favorite god hoping to be the next one he pierces with his arrow, and he enjoys the attention.

Then came a slide of this same Cupid side by side with Joseph, Ruby, and Venus. After a few moments, I started hearing the "oohs"and "aahs" of realization--the similarities and, especially, the difference were becoming clear.

Unlike Joseph, Ruby, and Venus, Cupid is fully aware of the attention paid him--he is self-conscious... just like, as the students figured out, Rebecca was while retrieving her binder.

Whether the attention paid them was positive or negative, Joseph, Ruby, and Venus were, on the other hand, oblivious to it. They weren’t even ignoring the others--which implies awareness--they were “in their own world”—unself-conscious.

So what did this identification of being self-conscious versus unself-conscious have to do with The Hunchback of Notre Dame?

Hands were being raised as lightbulbs were turning on. Before they said too much about Esmeralda, I showed them one more painting--actually, the lower half of a painting: a crowd of rugged looking medieval folk shouting and pointing up at something. As the students were starting to remember the scene, I showed the top half: Esmeralda offering water to Quasimodo on the pillory oblivious to the agitated crowd.

http://www.insecula.com/PhotosNew/00/00/06/36/ME0000063667_3.JPG

Though a seemingly minor trait of Esmeralda's, she might not have been capable of her "sublime" act were she self-conscious.

For pre-teens feeling the pressures of conformity and popularity, Esmeralda provides an image of self-assurance under scrutiny.