Task 1: Exploration of Littlecote House
Lesson 1
Students are encouraged, through questions in the rollovers, to investigate the detail of the painting. It includes closed questions, where the answers are given in the pop ups, and more open questions. (See Analysing the Landscape of Littlecote House and Making Decisions about Landscape Paintings)
The rollover questions could form the basis of a class, group or pair-work discussion/s.
Students could be asked to hypothesise about the nature of the painting, e.g.:
- For what purpose was the landscape painted?
- Who do you think commissioned the painting?
- What do the different elements of the painting tell us about society in 1705?
- Why is the landscape painted in such detail?
- What sorts of information do you think the painter would have used?
Extension Activities
- Research on Littlecote House – where it is.
- Using Google Maps might be a useful starting point to locate Littlecote House.
- Or using Google Earth might be more useful in looking at changes in the landscape over 400 years.
Click this link to download Google Earth.
- Who lived in Littlecote House?
- Is this painting unusual as a landscape?
- The WebQuest Landscapes in Perspective which is aimed at KS3 students might be useful background research, and offers opportunities for a joint Art/History topic. Visit http://nmolp.royalarmouries.org/webquests/ then click on KS3, Art & Design and choose the WebQuest Landscapes in Perspective.
- Research into 17th-century life – How reliable is the painting?
Lesson 2
Through structured discussion students could share their research and determine the reliability of the Landscape painting as evidence.
Having established the reliability/bias of the landscape painting and its limitations they could then conclude what the painting tells us about seventeenth century life.
Extension Activities
- Write a paragraph about photographs. How do photographs differ from landscape paintings as sources of evidence? (See Photographs and Landscape Paintings)
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