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Hi!
Italy
We’re from
, and we’re so glad you’re here to visit this special
exhibition of paintings from the Uffizi Gallery, one of the most famous art
museums in the world.
Let’s explore these paintings. We’re not doing all the work, so get your eyes ready for a special
scavenger hunt.
Find a detail that you like in each painting. It can be hills, trees, a lake, or
Let’s go!
Ragazzi (Kids): Use this guide to talk about the exhibition with your favorite adult.
Adulti (Adults): Use this guide to discuss the exhibition with your favorite kids.
When you draw or paint, what inspires you? Many of the artists in this exhibition were not Italian,
but all of them were inspired by Italy—the beautiful countryside, the quality of light, and the great
art, including ruins of ancient Roman buildings.
The paintings in this exhibition are landscapes, pictures of outdoor scenes. In some of the paintings,
you can see landscapes in the backgrounds. Other paintings are entirely landscapes. All the
landscapes we’ll look at together have figures, or people, in them.
© Iloveotto;© Ekaterina Ostanina; © Andres Rodriguez; © Angela Jones | Dreamstime.com
a building. Write it down in the space provided on the page.
Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi, about 1500
Crowd
Control
Find this painting.
What’s going on in this picture?
The artist left the pale brown areas in the foreground (front) unfinished. What do you think they are?
There are a lot of people! How does the artist use the landscape and the “rocks” to organize
everyone?
What other details do you notice? Does the background look real or made up to you?
Why or why not?
Artists may have sketched outdoors, but they painted inside because they used large canvases and
needed a lot of materials to mix their own paints. It wasn’t until nearly 350 years after this was
painted that artists could buy oil paint in tubes. This invention allowed them to take their supplies
with them and paint outdoors.
Write your favorite detail here:
Making a Grand Entrance
Let’s look at
a painting of
Florence, Italy, my
hometown.
Charles VIII was
the king of France
when he took over
Florence in 1494.
The street is the Via
Larga, and you can
walk there today.
(Via is the Italian
Granacci, Entrance of Charles VIII into Florence, about 1515-17
word for street.)
Can you find Charles VIII? How can you tell which figure is the king?
Why isn’t he a larger figure?
Why could you call this picture a cityscape?
Where do your eyes go? What does this picture tell
you about the city of Florence? What else do you see
in the background?
This picture shows an artist using one point
perspective. Imagine lines all pointing to the same
place in the distance. This is called the vanishing
point. The Taft Museum of Art’s painting
Changing Pasture by Anton Mauve also uses one
Mauve, Changing Pasture, about 1887
point perspective. You can see it in the hallway outside
the Dining Room in the historic house.
Check this out: You’ll find great art in many Italian towns but especially in
Florence, home to the Uffizi Gallery where many well-known paintings
are exhibited. Throughout Florence, you can find more famous art such
as Michelangelo’s David. Michelangelo spent much of his life in this
city, and you can visit his home.
Find another cityscape of Florence in the exhibition. The picture
shows the Piazza della Signoria, and it looks a lot like it does today!
Write your favorite detail here:
Bread, Cheese, and Ants
D’Angeli, Picnic on the Grass, 1619
Here’s what a picnic looked like 500 years ago!
How does it look like our picnics today?
How would you describe the trees in this picture? Is this an easy place to get to? How would you get
to this place? What other examples of nature do you see? How have people changed the landscape?
Look for other pictures of people enjoying themselves outside.
Write your favorite detail here:
Don’t Myth Out!
What’s happening in this picture? What are the two men
in the foreground (front) doing? In this painting based on a story from Greek
mythology, Battus sees the god Mercury stealing cattle from the god Apollo.
Mercury persuades Battus to keep as quiet as the stones. Later, Mercury tricks
Battus into telling and turns him into a rock.
Describe the landscape. What does the landscape tell you about
the story? What do you think the building on the right might be? Why do you
think the artist put it in the painting?
There are lots of paintings with shepherds (people who take care of sheep) in
this exhibition. Can you find them?
Van Poelenburgh, Mercury and Battus, about 1621
Poussin, Theseus Discovers His Father’s Weapons, about 1635
Super Hero
What’s going on? Can you see anything under the stone? In Greek mythology,
the king of Athens buried his sword and sandals under a stone for his son Theseus to find. How do
you suppose Theseus is able to lift the stone?
This artist loved to include ancient architecture in his paintings. How does the artist show you that
the building is old?
Write your favorite detail here:
Canaletto, The Tower of Marghera, about 1740-50
Water Water Everywhere
Marghera is near my hometown of Venice in northern Italy.
What do you see in the picture?
Where do your eyes go first?
How would you use the tower?
What are the people in the boats doing?
What do you think the weather is like? What clues help you to know?
What other landscape details do you see?
In Venice, our streets are canals, and we get from place to place in
boats. If you look in the lower left-hand corner, you can see part of a
boat called a gondola.
Write your favorite detail here:
Turn the page to create your own masterpiece landscape!
Thanks for joining us.
We hope you’ll come back to visit the Taft!
Till next time!
Learn More about Landscapes and Italian Art
The following resources are available from the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Librarians are happy to provide you with additional ideas. You can get more information at
www.cincinnatilibrary.org.
Gladys Blizzard, Come Look With Me: Exploring Landscape Art with Children,
758.1 qB649.1992
Illustrated with full-color reproductions, an introduction to 12 fascinating
landscape paintings.
Lucia Corrain, The Art of the Renaissance, 709.024 qC823eE 1997 2008
An introduction to the major artists, artistic techniques, and cities of the
Italian Renaissance.
Web sites
How Van Gogh Made His Mark
Learn more about Vincent van Gogh and how he created his unique
landscapes. Ages 8 and up.
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/van_gogh/menu.html
Carmine’s Landscape Adventure
Carmine Chameleon explores weather, light, mood, and depth in landscape
paintings. Create your own landscape painting, too! Ages 7 and up.
http://www.alifetimeofcolor.com/play/landscape1/index.html
The National Gallery’s Jungle
Construct flowers and trees, control the weather, and mix and match animals
in your imaginary landscape! All ages.
http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/jungle.htm
Your Landscape
create a landscape
Now, it’s your turn to
. Use the details you wrote
down in this booklet, or use different details, such as an ocean, a field, or a garden.
Views from the Uffizi: Painting the Italian Landscape
Exhibition Sponsors:
Ellen and George Rieveschl Endowment
Josephine Schell Russell Charitable Trust, PNC Bank, Trustee
John W. Hauck Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Co-Trustee
The Kaplan Foundation
A Friend of the Taft Museum of Art
Oliver Charitable Trust
Harold C. Schott Foundation
Lela C. Brown
The Carl H. Lindner Family
Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Kalnow
Docents of the Taft Museum of Art
Fine Arts Fund Partner: P&G
Media Partners: WGUC 90.9/WVXU 91.7
Exhibition organized by
Contemporanea Progetti, Florence, Italy,
in collaboration with Trust for Museum Exhibitions, Washington, D.C.
316 Pike Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 241-0343 www.taftmuseum.org
©2008 Taft Museum of Art
Design by MPBuck