SchoolArts January 2007
GalleryCard Interpretation
Saint Roch, early 16th century, France, Normandy confirmed by his worried expression and the
(Manche); said to have come from the cathedral disease’s bubo, which discreetly appears on his
at Cherbourg. Oak, paint, and gilding; 61½" (156 thigh, rather than in his groin, where the lym-
cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, phatic system often formed such a “bubble.”
The Cloisters Collection, 1925 ( 25.120.239 a, b). A dog, seen here, brought him food and, later,
his master, who nursed Roch back to health.
Activity
Have your students create a written or
oral narrative about this figure based on
its details.
Dr. Mike Norris, museum educator for Family Programs, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art.
SchoolArts January 2007
A Woman Seated Beside a Vase of Flowers ing questions. By placing the woman at the
(Madame Paul Valpinçon?), 1865 Oil on can- margin, Degas challenges the category of
vas; 29 x 36 ½" (74 x 93 cm). The Metropolitan portraiture, which typically directs the viewer
Museum of Art, New York, H. O. Havemeyer Col- toward the sitter. By stretching the boundar-
lection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 ies of portraiture, introducing an element of
( 29.100.128). still life and a suggestion of narrative, Degas
creates a painting open to a variety of inter-
A vase overflowing with a bouquet of summer pretations.
flowers dominates this composition. A pitcher
of water stands beside a pair of gloves on the
table. A woman leans on her elbow and brings
her hand to her jaw. She fixes her gaze on
something outside the picture frame.
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917) painting provokes these and other intrigu-
The viewer has a dynamic experience
when looking at this painting. At first, the
abundant flowers are arresting, but once one’s
focus moves to the woman it is hard to turn
back to the flowers.
Is this a portrait that marginalizes its
human subject? Is it a genre painting with
hints at a narrative? Is it a still life? Degas’
Activity
Ask your students to write a story describing the woman in the painting. Who is
she? What is she feeling and thinking?
What happened before she sat down?
What will happen next?
Carolyn Halpin-Healy, independent museum
educator on the teaching staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The importance of symbolism, the anatomical naturalism, and the slightly exaggerated S
curve in this figure’s stance are all characteristic of the Late Gothic style in Europe. The
various stories of Roch’s life (c. 1350–1380)
explain the details of this statue, and account
for his becoming the patron saint of the diseased and veterinarians. Here he is a pilgrim
wearing a shade hat with the crossed keys of
Saint Peter to signify that he has just visited
the shrines of Rome. His ornate tunic hints
at his nobility, for Roch was supposedly the
son of the governor of Montpellier in France.
However, it is also sized for a plumper person, showing that, after curing others, Roch
became sick with the Black Plague. This is
GalleryCard Interpretation
SchoolArts January 2007
GalleryCard Interpretation
Julia Margaret Cameron’s circle of family and hope Worsley was an Oxford-educated poet
friends included luminaries of the Victorian and translator whose life ended at the age of
era. Carlyle, Herschel, Darwin, and Cameron’s thirty-one.
niece Julia Jackson, mother of Vanessa Bell
and Virginia Woolf, were typical subjects.
Cameron captures the essence of her sitters’
personalities, intellect, or beauty in her pictures.
What does this picture tell us about Philip
Stanhope Worsley?
Worsley’s intensity and forcefulness as one
who has engaged “the life of the mind” may John S. Welch, museum educator in charge of
have prompted the unusual focal point of this Youth Programs, the Metropolitan Museum
picture. The otherworldly quality of his gaze of Art.
and the ethereal lighting in the photograph
may also allude to a man, or soul, removed
from the mundane. Worsley’s suspended presence, as if offered sacrificially, may allude to
biblical and literary models of martyrdom or
human tragedy. Ordinary human existence
is overshadowed by the presence of intellect
and spirituality in this picture. Philip Stan-
Ask students what effects, additions, or
subtractions they engage when making
a photograph of someone known well or
admired? Why?
Activity
SchoolArts January 2007
Robert Rauschenberg (American, born 1925) Win- fragments. In the middle, a ladder links the
ter Pool, 1959. Combine painting: oil, paper, fab- left and right flanks. The wall on which the
ric, wood, metal, sandpaper, tape, printed paper, combine rests is completely visible in this
printed reproductions, handheld bellows, and part since there’s no backing, and the legs of
found painting, on two canvases, with ladder; 89½ the ladder rest on the floor. Rauschenberg
x 58½ x 4" (227 x 149 x 10 cm). Jointly owned by always invites us to see things differently.
Steven A. Cohen and The Metropolitan Museum Normally, ladders connect vertically, but this
of Art; Promised Gift of Steven A. Cohen, and ladder bridges space horizontally instead.
Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, Anonymous Rauschenberg included recognizable imag-
Gift and Gift of Sylvia de Cuevas, by exchange, and ery and real things, yet there’s no narrative,
George A. Hearn Fund, 2005 (2005.390) no explicit subject. Meaning is fluid, and we,
as viewers, have a major role: to formulate
our insights.
Activity
Have students make their own “combine”
by integrating different art forms.
Stella Paul, museum educator in charge of
Exhibitions and Communication, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
66. Albumen silver print from glass negative;
1115/16 x 9 13/16" ( 30 x 25 cm). The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, Gilman Collection,
Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Gift, 2005.
Julia Margaret Cameron (British, 1815–1879),
Philip Stanhope Worsley (1835–1866), 1864–
GalleryCard Interpretation
Rauschenberg invented a new art form he
called “combines,” mixed-media hybrids that
combine characteristics of painting and sculpture. Rauschenberg is extraordinarily inclusive about materials. Anything is fair game,
including traditional media like paint and canvas, but also things found outside the usual
art context. He affixed bits of fabric, wood,
unidentified machinery parts, prints of other
artists’ work, shirt cuffs, and commercial sign
