STANDARDS

Lexile: 920L

 

Core Art Standards:

VA6: Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.

VA8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.

VA11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

 

CCSS Anchor Standards:

R1: Make inferences and cite textual evidence.

R3: Analyze ideas and sequence events.

R5: Analyze text structure.

 

Essential Question: How do artworks cultivate appreciation and understanding?

 

Enduring Understanding: Artworks communicate meaning and a record of social, cultural, and political experiences resulting in the cultivating of appreciation and understanding.

 

Vocabulary: artistic license, hyperrealistic, large-scale, sublime, symbols

 

Materials: computer or interactive whiteboard, “Graphic Organizer: Art and Nature” skills sheets from Lesson Plan 1

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Teaching Resources

Lesson: Cotopaxi, Annotated

Use with pages 6-7.

Objective: Students will recognize and interpret key compositional elements in an iconic painting.

PREPARATION:

  • Review students’ notes from their “Graphic Organizer: Art and Nature” skills sheets.

PROCEDURE:

  1. Invite a student to read the introduction of “Cotopaxi, Annotated.” Invite a second student to read “The Composition.” Invite a third to read “The Symbolism.” Invite a fourth to read “The Hype.” After each section, ask students to closely observe the painting and take notes about what they see.
  2. Ask: How does Frederic Edwin Church explore nature in this painting? What messages does he convey? (Church creates a hyperrealistic painting but takes artistic license to add symbolism and deeper meaning.)
  3. Invite students to discuss why many Hudson River School paintings were displayed with dramatic lighting and potted plants. (Answers will vary but should touch on the idea that showing the works in this way created the illusion that viewers were peering at the landscape in person.)
  4. Have students record their findings in their “Graphic Organizer: Art and Nature” skills sheets.

DISCUSSION:

  • What makes this work both hyperrealistic and symbolic? (Church includes details that reflect real aspects of the natural landscape around Cotopaxi. At the same time, he also includes details that are not true to the real landscape in order to convey meaning through symbolism.)
  • How does Church convey a message about the Civil War? (He uses symbols that viewers at the time would have related to the war, including the volcano, the billowing smoke, and the blue sky.)
  • Compare this work with Thomas Cole’s painting on page 4. Do you notice similarities in the works’ themes and messages? (Answers will vary but may mention that both are landscapes and reflect connections between humans and the natural world.)

REMOTE LEARNING:

  • Using a sketch pad, pencils, paint, or other materials, create a work that is hyperrealistic and symbolic. What message can you include in your work? How can you use scenes of nature to convey an idea?
  • Do an image search for another painting of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church. Write a few sentences or a short paragraph about the similarities and differences between the two paintings of the same subject.

ASSESSMENT:

Write the Essential Question on the board. Ask: How do artworks collected, preserved, or presented cultivate appreciation and understanding? Invite students to think about this question in reference to Cotopaxi.

Download a printable PDF of this lesson plan.

Share an interactive slide deck with your students.

Text-to-Speech