Art in the round (Fresco tondo)

This project was inspired by the artist Sandro Boticelli, born in Florence where many artists lived and worked.

Like most artists of his era, Botticelli was apprenticed when he was still a young boy and lived at the studio of his master, a goldsmith, along with the other young apprentices. Here he learned to do all the jobs of an artist.

Botticelli worked for rich and powerful patrons, the Medici family. Some of the paintings commisioned by the Medici's included religious paintings and scenes from mythology.

Botticelli is well known for the many round compositions he created, a popular shape for paintings in his day. A round painting is called a 'tondo.'

The children created art in the round, by brainstorming about round/circular pictures and placing them in a round composition/setting. Rather than ding this on paper, we created a plaster of Paris base on which the children painted before being fully set. This enabled the paint to mix with the plaster of Paris, as in a fresco. A fresco is a picture directly painted on walls which have just been given a layer of plaster, as found in monasteries and churches around Italy, such as the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo in Rome and The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci in Milan (pictured below)

The Last Supper by Da Vinci (fresco)

Sketching and brainstorming about circular things and circular compositions

Colourful round art

Mixing paint with plaster of Paris

Waiting for the plaster of Paris to set...but not too much to allow the paint set in ...placing a hook in the plaster so that the tondo can be hung up

Poking the bases out for painting

Tri-fold album card

Cutting, scoring, folding, pasting, embellishing, drawing and decorating on a scheme of colour and pattern...this is the result!

Fra Angelico: gold and peaceful

Fra Angelico, who was an Italian monk was one of the greatest painters of the early Renaissance. He was asked to paint the walls of the monastery in which he lived with the other monks. His paintings depict stories from the Bible, such as the Annunciation and Christ rising from death in a very beautiful manner, filled with delicate colours and a feeling of peaceful serenity.

Artists of his era often gave halos to the angels and people in the paintings. This golden ring around a figure's head was meant to show an inner goodness shining out for everyone to see. Halos were often made of real gold, not with gold paint. Gold metal was pounded into a very thin sheet called "gold leaf", then glued onto the wall or canvas with varnish. Hence, inspired by Fra Angelico, the children had a look at the angels found in his paintings, and then produced their own on canvas using tempera including gold tempera paint and gold leaf for the halo or for decorating the angel's attire.