Goal
- Understand how Renaissance artists used composition, gesture, and tempera/oil technique to tell religious and everyday stories.
- Practice "reading" a painting like a story — who, what, when, where.
Italian Renaissance Gallery (Gallery 141)
Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Sandro Botticelli, about 1500, tempera on panel
Nativity with Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Luca della Robbia, about 1470, glazed terracotta
The Dead Christ with Angels, Rosso Fiorentino, about 1524–27, oil on panel
Look closely at the hands and faces in these works — what feeling is the artist showing us, and how?
Activity
"Story detective" — in small groups, students study one painting and write down the who/what/where/when/why, then present their "case" to the class.
At-home project
Draw a small scene from your own life (a memory, a family dinner, a game) using the same idea Renaissance artists used: pick one main gesture or expression that tells the whole story.