7th and 8th grade artists were introduced to art of the Northern Renaissance, which is my personal favorite art period. I love the richness in the paint and the extreme realistic rendering the master artists were able to achieve. One of these impressive artists is Albrecht Dürer, an artist known for his many self-portrait paintings as well as his woodcut prints.
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Self-Portrait at 28, 1500
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Durer_selfporitrait.jpg/220px-Durer_selfporitrait.jpg |
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Rhinocerus woodcut
https://media1.britannica.com/eb-media/46/150746-004-3F4BD323.jpg
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The greatest thing about this rhino artwork is that Dürer drew it based on a written description - Dürer never actually laid eyes on one of these animals before drawing it! For the most part, the drawing is pretty spot on; I admire the variety of textures and details he added to the animal, which is why this is the inspiration for our next project! Students chose an animal and have been practicing drawing textures, using contour lines to create their animal because there can be no value or color in creating a print.
More details will come your way once students begin creating the actual print block. For more information about Northern Renaissance artwork, take a look at the slideshow on the 7/8 Art page!
