The Duke and Duchess of Urbino

The portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesco are a diptych i.e.: a painting of two panels connected by a hinge. It can be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence where it is displayed in a glass cabinet so that you can see the paintings on the reverse. Federigo da Montefeltro and his wife Battista Sforza face each other, a motif borrowed from Roman coinage, which was popular at the time. It is thought that these portraits were commissioned following the death of the duchess Battista.
Federigo came to prominence as a leader of mercenaries and through his ill-gotten gains and riches made Urbino a city of wealth and importance. It was there that Piero della Francesca painted the diptych, possibly as a memorial to the duchess.

       The compositional layout was possibly designed to disguise the duke’s facial disfigurement as he had lost an eye and suffered severe damage to his nose during a tournament. His tanned, wart covered face is contrasted with the pale, smooth, deathlike complexion of his wife. She shows a strange high forehead which was the fashion of the time. The details of her jewels, headdress and sleeve show the mastery of Piero’s ability to paint various textures in an authentic manner. The landscape appears to be of another world, almost dreamlike and has qualities seen in the painting of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci which was painted about thirty years later.

          The closed panels reveal paintings showing the duke and duchess in carriages, his drawn by horses and hers by unicorns symbolising her purity. He is wearing the armour of a victorious leader and is crowned in victory with Justice, Wisdom, Valour personified by his side, while Battista is surrounded by the figures of Faith, Hope and Charity. Regardless of the sentiments that the duke wanted to have portrayed to show his strength and power, he is left in an eternal limbo facing his dead wife in an unspoken conversation

The First Essays

Friday morning, and I stood outside the classroom at 9am as students filtered through the corridors. Copybook sand pages in plastic inserts appeared from inside the bags of students that I don't even teach with "M asked me to give this to you or this is from E. By the time I reached my own class I had most of the essays from the sixth years who were away for the day. Even some of the fifth years couldn't wait for their own class and handed them in early, some telling me that they thought that it was the best essay that they had ever written. One fellow told me that he would be very disappointed if he didn't get an A1. I promised to go back over it if he was short marks, but there was no need to as he scored 95%. It took me 8 hours to correct 29 essays. There were three no shows so that means 5 marks lost per day for them. It was great to see how the group discussions worked to the benefit of those students who have little confidence in essay writing. I could see a marked improvement in some of their grades.

The Flipped Classroom, Week 1

Wednesday morning, and the first group of students arrived in the classroom at 9 am with their keyword sheets filled in and ready to go. The plan was on the whiteboard "Find your group and share, swap or steal information on Masaccio and two of his paintings". Each group is named after a renaissance artist and made up of students with different learning styles so as to achieve successful peer teaching.

The students had been given links to videos on The Tribute Money and The Holy Trinity as well as handouts, a PDF of my PowerPoint presentation and some handouts to supplement their textbook. Some had also used the online quiz that I created to go with the videos. The idea was that they could use the resources to fill in a keyword template to bring to class. This was to encourage students to gain as much knowledge on the artist and his work before Wednesday's class so that they everyone could leave with the basis of a good essay to write up over the next two nights. Each would be graded on their own personal work but an average grade from their group essays would produce the winner of the week. 

So, for 15 minutes the room was buzzing with the students working within their groups, I watched and listened with delight at a really animated class discussed, explained and basically taught each other. It was one of the most rewarding days of my teaching career. Don't get me wrong, this was not me taking the easy way out as it cost me at least 12 hours of prep just to provide the resources for two 40 minute classes. But oh, what a joy to see it working. 

At the end of the 15 minutes I began the PowerPoint and my mini lecture. I would say that I did 60% of the talking and the students the rest. And a lot of my talking was asking questions. Almost every one was fully engaged and sharing what they knew including their own observations. One or two were a little quiet and that is my next challenge as I want everyone to feel included and their opinions valued. 

Friday is the day for essay submission, with five marks per day lost for failure to hand it in. One student said that she will be away tomorrow so she handed it in today, while others came to me to make arrangements help them make arrangements to hand them in at eight o clock in the morning before they head off on a school trip. The support has been great and the principal is making herself available to receive them before the bus departs. Whatever about the students, I feel so energised and excited by it all.