Raphael - The Small Cowper Madonna, Antonio Vivaldi - Flute Concerto in D Allegro and Cantibile, Rainer Maria Rilke - The Last Supper, Robert Louis Stevenson - Time to Rise

 

I'd like to feature another Madonna painting by Raphael this week.  Actually we will study four different Madonna paintings by Raphael this term.  What similarities and what differences do you notice as you compare last week's painting to this week's? There are many differences to note, but one thing I noticed is the difference in how this mother and child are holding their heads as opposed to last week's painting, where Mary's head was tilted toward Jesus in a protective sort of pose.  His head was also inclined toward hers.  This mother is more contemplative and the child looks more adventurous.  

The Small Cowper Madonna by Raphael

Looking for music by Antonio Vivaldi I realize we'll only get a taste of his work as there is so much of his beautiful music available!  This week I chose his Flute Concerto in D Allegro and Cantibile played by 9 year old Emma Rasmini.  Lovely music!!  I found a CD at our library with "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi so we've been listening to that as background music.  I've also ordered in a couple of biographies of Vivaldi, so I'll hopefully be able to find something to recommend if you want a book biography of his life. 

The following was Rainer Maria Rilke's response to seeing Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper"

The Last Supper

They are assembled, astonished and disturbed
round him, who like a sage resolved his fate,
and now leaves those to whom he most belonged,

leaving and passing by them like a stranger.
The loneliness of old comes over him
which helped mature him for his deepest acts;
now will he once again walk through the olive grove,
and those who love him still will flee before his sight.

To this last supper he has summoned them,
and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees)
their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves
upon his word: they fly across to him;
they flutter, frightened, round the supper table
searching for an escape. But he is present
everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.


 I've often quoted this short poem by Robert Louis Stevenson to my children if I need to wake them early in the morning.  

                               Time to Rise

A birdie with a yellow bill
Hopped upon my window sill,
Cocked his shining eye and said:
"Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!"

Raphael -Madonna of the Chair, Vivaldi - Winter, Ranier Maria Rilke - You see, I want a Lot, Robert Louis Stevenson - My Shadow

A new year - fresh starts and new attempts at old things.  Each day is a new start, but somehow a new year feels even bigger!  At the brink of the new year it seems appropriate to start with a new artist, composer and poet. Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael is a well-known artist - I'm a little surprised that I haven't featured him yet, but somehow he's been saved for this moment (at least on this blog).  If you want to preview or print the paintings I plan to feature you can check out my Picasa Web Album of Paintings by Raphael or choose some of your own from the following five links to places on the web featuring short biographies and samples of his paintings.

Biography of Raphael

25 Beautiful Paintings by Raphael

The National Gallery's Raphael paintings

Wikipedia List of Paintings by Raphael

Google images - Raphael Paintings

Raphael painted Mary and the baby Jesus over and over.  Today's painting is one of these. Many artists have painted Mary and Jesus.  I think it is interesting to note how each artist brings his own culture and perspective into the painting with clothes and accessories and even style of painting.  I think the circular format of this painting is interesting and cuts out background details focusing on the people. It makes it seem cozy and intimate.  There are lots of diagonal lines in the painting itself for your eye to run along, giving it energy:   arms, Jesus leg, the lineup of the faces, the stripe on Mary's garment.  Notice how John the Baptist off to the side is present but not prominent, the central focus remains Jesus and his mother.  Here is a link to an article featuring this painting.

Madonna of the Chair

Our new composer is Antonio Vivaldi.  If you'd like a biographical sketch, check out the following two links:  Baroque Composers and Musicians - Antonio Vivaldi or Wikipedia - Antonio Vivaldi.  You also might enjoy the Vox Music Masters CD "The Story of Vivaldi and Corelli", which has Vivaldi's story interspersed with his music.  

Our first piece for this season is Winter from The Four Seasons.  And following is a link to a Vivaldi playlist if you want to listen as background music. 

I just found a copy of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke at our library's used bookstore so I'd like to feature his work this term.  I was first exposed to his poetry in a book about Anne Morrow Lindberg by her daughter.  Anne loved Rilke's poetry.  So, I've only read a few of Rilke's poems so far, but what I've read so far is beautiful and moving so if you don't mind we'll explore his work together.  Since his work is advanced, I'll also feature a poem from Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses each week for those with younger children and those who don't care for Rilke's work.  I never tire of Stevenson's poems!  If you don't already own a copy of this work, it's a book worth owning!  

                    You See, I Want a Lot
                          Rainer Maria Rilke
              (translated from the German by Robert Bly)

You see, I want a lot.
Perhaps I want everything:
the darkness that comes with every infinite fall
and the shivering blaze of every step up.

So many live on and want nothing,
and are raised to the rank of prince
by the slippery ease of their light judgments.

But what you love to see are faces
that do work and feel thirst.

You love most of all those who need you
as they need a crowbar or a hoe.

You have not grown old, and it is not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out its own secret.

                       My Shadow 

                           Robert Louis Stevenson

            From: A Child's Garden of Verses

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow--
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

 

Adam Pynacker and Jacopo Bassano - The Annunciation to the Shepherds, Highlights from Handel's Messiah, Tomorrow (Manana) by Lope De Vega (translated by William Wordsworth)

This is the end of December so we'll start with a new artist next week. I'm planning to feature the Renaissance painter, Raphael for January-March.  You can check out my Web Album of Paintings by Raphael.  If you are printing them you may want to note that one of the pictures is of a wall in the Vatican, you can print it or not as you please, it is not a painting itself but rather for reference on the blog when we study the paintings from that room.

I got a note from an artist friend this week commenting on the paintings on the blog last week.  She noted the sleeping shepherds in the painting and said, "I am always disturbed at the ones who are asleep, and want to pray for those asleep around me."  Powerful thought!  I had completely missed the sleepers.... I had to look back through all the December paintings looking for sleepers..... 

The two paintings for this week both have angels reaching down from the heavens.  It's interesting to study the clouds and light, too.  Both pictures have a cow.  Jacopo Bassano's angel's wings are dark.  Adam Pynacker's angel wings are gray, but look light (perhaps even white) just grayed by the shadows.  I like to note the responses of the shepherds to seeing an angel and hearing the news as depicted in each painting. 

Adam Pynacker - The Annunciation to the Shepherds

Jacopo Bassano - The Annunciation to the Shepherds

Highlights from Handel's Messiah this week.  This music video has some beautiful paintings and of course the music is wonderful!!  Is some of it becoming familiar?  We've played it quite a few times as background music this month.  

The entry for December 31st in The One Year Book of Poetry compiled and written by Philip Comfort and Daniel Partner is Tomorrow (Manana) by Lope De Vega (translated by William Wordsworth).

                          Tomorrow (Manana)

Lord, what am I, that, with unceasing care,
   Thou didst seek after me, that thou didst wait,
   Wet with unhealthy dews, before my gate,
   And pass the gloomy nights of winter there?
Oh, strange delusion, that I did not greet
   Thy blest approach! and oh, to Heaven how lost,
   If my ingratitude's unkindly frost
   Has chilled the bleeding wouunds upon thy feet!
How oft my guardian angel gently cried,
   "Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt see
   How he persists to knock and wait for thee!"
And, oh! how often to that voice of sorrow,
   "To-morrow we will open," I replied,
    And when the morrow came I answered still,
     "To-morrow."

The Angel's annunciation to the Shepherds - Maitre des Corteges' and Abraham Bloemart, Handel's Messiah, and Let the Stable Still Astonish - Leslie Leyland Fields

I hope you're enjoying this themed study as much as I am!  Maitre des Corteges' painting has some interesting details.  At first I thought it was a cave or a building that the angels were peeking into, but looking closer I think that it is perhaps just the heavy layer as if there was a barrier between earth and heaven he is depicting. I think his animals and people look fairly realistic and skillfully painted. The clothing is interesting. The second painting is by the Dutch painter Abraham Bloemart who was also featured last week.  It would be interesting to compare his two works.  

Maitre des Corteges - Annunciation to the Shepherds

Abraham Bloemaert - The Annunciation to the Shepherds

Here are the links again to Messiah: A Sacred Oratorio or Handel's Messiah.  One of the beautiful things about George Fredrick Handel's Messiah Oratorio is that it is full of Scripture.  

This beautiful poem this week:

Let the Stable Still Astonish

by Leslie Leyland Fields

Let the stable still astonish:
Straw-dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child--
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?
Who would have said,
“Yes,Let the God of Heaven and Earth
Be born in this place”?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
Of our hearts
And says,
“Yes,Let the God of Heaven and Earth
Be born in this place.”

Abraham Hondius and Abraham Bloemaert - The Announcement to the Shepherds, George Fredrick Handel - Messiah A Sacred Oratorio, Charles Wesley - The Incarnation

Abraham Hondius and Abraham Bloemaert used similar colors in this week's paintings - dark contrasted with golden light and a bit of red and light blue or green thrown in.  Both have angels in a cloud of golden light. One is vertical which is more dramatic and the second is horizontal which tends to be more peaceful. The pose of the angels is similar though the first painting has a whole cloud of cherubs behind the announcing angel. The first painting again has that cow in the middle of the foreground, but the second has a herd of sheep. Note again this week the different responses of people depicted.

Abraham Hondius - The Annunciation to the Shepherds

Abraham Bloemaert - Announcement to the Shepherds

Let's continue listening to Handel's Messiah or Messiah: A Sacred Oratorio.  The second has a helpful brief introduction to George Fredrick Handel and the history of this oratorio.  I'm planning to let this play several times this week as background music.  

Today's poem is by the great hymn writer Charles Wesley - 

                 Incarnation

Glory be to God on high,
   And Peace on Earth descend:
God comes down:  He bows the Sky:
   He shows himself our Friend!
God th' Invisible appears,
    God the Blest, the Great I AM
Sojourns in this Vale of Tears,
    And JESUS is his Name.

Him the Angels all ador-d
    Their Maker and their King:
Tidings of their Humbled LORD
    They now to Mortals bring:
Emptied of his Majesty,
    Of His dazzling Glories shorn,
Beings Source begins to BE
   And GOD himself is BORN!

See th'Eternal Son of GOD
   A Mortal Son of Man,
Dwelling in an Earthly Clod
   Whom Heaven cannot contain!
Stand amaz'd ye Heavens at This!
   See the LORD of Earth and Skies
Humbled to the Dust He is,
   And in a Manger Lies!

We the Sons of Men rejoice,
   The Prince of Peace proclaim,
With Heaven's Host lift up our Voice,
   And shout Immanuel's Name;
Knees and Hearts to Him we bow;
   Of our Flesh, and of our Bone
JESUS is our Brother now,,
   And GOD is All our own!

Thomas Buchanan Read and Jules Bastian Lepage - the Annunciation of the Shepherds, The Messiah by George Fredrick Handel and Nativity by James Montgomery (Angels From the Realms of Glory)

 This week I'd like to feature a painting by an American artist, Thomas Buchanan Read of the Angel announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds and one by Jules Bastien Lepage.  Their  perspective is quite different than last week's paintings as it is quite close and personal.  The angel is much closer to the shepherds rather than up in the clouds. Also there is just one angel in each of these paintings rather than a host of heavenly beings.  These two angels are both dressed in decidedly feminine apparel.  Thomas Buchanan Read's painting has the background image implying Bethlehem, like Thomas Cole's from last week, but Jules Bastien Lepage's painting is focuses on a close-up of the angel and shepherd's interaction.

Thomas Buchanan Read - The Angel Appearing Before the Shepherds

Jules Bastian Lepage - The Annunciation of the Shepherds

I know that Handel's Messiah is not strictly Christmas music, but the Messiah is what Christmas is all about and we often sing at least parts at Christmas so I'd like to feature it during this season.  It's lengthy, you may want to listen to parts each week or put it on as background music during the week.  For me, some parts are more familiar than others.  But all is beautiful and much of it is Scripture and all of it is about our matchless Lord Jesus Christ.  

Our poem this week is by James Montgomery.  As a hymn it is known as Angels From the Realms of Glory, but it was titled Nativity in my poetry book.

           Nativity

Angels, from the realms of glory,
   Wing your flight o'er all the earth,
Ye who sang creation's story,
   Now proclaim Messiah's birth;
     Come and worship,
Worship Christ the new-born King.

Shepherds, in the field abiding,
   Watching o'er  your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing,
   Yonder shines the infant-light;
      Come and worship,
Worship Christ the new-born King.

Sages, leave your contemplations,
   Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations;
   Ye have seen His natal star;
       Come and worship,
Worship Christ the new-born King.

Saints before the altar bending,
   Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending;
   In His temple shall appear;
      Come and worship,
Worship Christ the new-born King.

Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
   Doom'd for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
   Mercy calls you,--break your chains;
       Come and worship,
Worship Christ the new-born King.

The Annunciation to the Shepherds - Govaert Flinck and Thomas Cole, Bach - Christmas Oratorio, In the Bleak Midwinter - Christina Rosetti

For art study the month of December I'd like to cover paintings with the birth of Christ as the subject and specifically of the angels making their announcement to the Shepherds.  I found about a dozen paintings, a fresco and a flemish minature. You can look at them or copy them using my Picasa Web Album to Paintings of the Annunciation to the Shepherds  or  Google Images has many interesting paintings of this subject if you want to choose your own.  I generally chose older images and ones that gave the artist's name.  I'd like to feature two paintings each week so we can cover ten during December. It was interesting to see the wide variety in how people imagine the story.  Some see angels as women or even cherubic children, others as men or generic, most have wings and are in light of some sort.  Some view the angels as far away in the heavens, others with them up close giving their news.  The animals in the scenes vary greatly as do the styles of dress for the shepherds and the background vegetation and shelters.  It might be a fun project to read the story aloud to your children from Luke 2 and have them illustrate it before you study the paintings.  Then again late in the  month or early in January after we have studied these 12 paintings you could have them draw or paint again and see how their ideas have changed. You might also have them act out this scene. If your children are older they might enjoy designing a needlework, clay figures or a quilted project depicting the story.  If you like how their projects turn out you could get them copied (photographs can also be made and copied) and made into prints for cards to send to friends and family.

Let's start with Govaert Flinck's The Annunciation to the Shepherds.
 The link for this painting has interesting information on this artist and painting.

Govaert Flinck - The Annunciation to the Shepherds

And a painting by my favorite American artist, Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole

This month I'd like to feature classical music for Christmas.  This week we'll listen to Johann Sebastian Bach's  Christmas Oratorio (in English)     This is just the beginning of the oratorio.  If you'd like to listen to the whole thing it is  here beautifully done, but not in English.

I'd like to recommend an advent devotional called Joy to the World.  You can download it free on Amazon.  It features a hymn and it's background story each day and has a link to a youtube rendition of the song, followed by a short prayer.  

One of my favorite Christmas poems by Christina Rossetti this week:  

          In the Bleak Midwinter 

 By Christina Rossetti

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.

In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,

Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,

The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.