Our amazing art teacher, Meghan, does both picture study of famous artists with students and guides them through their own reproductions in a wide variety of media. This week it was sculpting an imitation of the face of Michelangelo’s Moses statue. You might think that would be impossible for five, six, and seven-year-olds (and up). Well, it wasn’t. Take a look at their works.
These kids aren’t geniuses. They just have great instruction.
Before you look a little more closely at their work, here’s Meghan with a few details about the sculpture and the students’ reproductions: “We had a good conversation about the sculpture, including why Moses has horns. It’s because of a translation error! There’s a part in the Bible that says Moses had rays of light coming from his head, but they translated it as “horns” so Moses is often depicted with horns in Medieval and Renaissance art.”
“After our conversation about the sculpture, I took a couple minutes to demonstrate some basic sculpting techniques. They learned how to form a nose and eye sockets from a flat slab of clay, how to add pieces to the sculpture properly so that they don’t fall off upon drying, and how they can dip their finger in water to make “sludge” to help pieces stick together and also to smooth out bumpy surfaces. Then they got a chance to sculpt Moses out of clay, and their results were quite impressive.”
If a child starts studying art this way at age five or six, just think about how his art skills will develop by continuing to practice consistently in classes over the next decade. What an inspiring thought!
Redeemer Classical School 