ITALY: 2nd Grade Byzantine Inspired Self Portraits

While in Italy, of course, we toured many incredibly beautiful churches. All so ornate and beautiful, but all so different in so many ways. It was a feast for the eyes...the beautiful stones of many colors, sculptures, frescos, candles, ironwork, and woodwork. The churches just took my breath away. In the older Byzantine era churches or pre-Renaissance churches were frescos of people from the Bible with  what we would call a halo around their head to designate them as holy. We put a new spin on this Byzantine style of painting and did Byzantine inspired self portraits. This project was a bit tough for the 2nd graders who participated, but we made it through it! They drew their self portrait first. Then they drew their halo and added some embellishment on one side of the halo that depicted something they were interested in.  Examples are palm trees from a vacation, the tail of a cat or dog, really just anything that personalized it. They painted the self portrait with water color. We used bronze or gold tempera paint to paint the halo and embellishment. They had a little free choice on the backgrounds, but we wanted the faces stand out so they were encouraged to keep the backgrounds simple. Then, for balance, most painted a rectangular shape with the metallic paint on the opposite side of where the halo embellishments were.  This project really held their interest and they enjoyed seeing my photo slide show of Byzantine art before they started.

Above: Byzantine art, about 1050  A.D. 

Above: Contemporary example of Byzantine inspired self portrait.