Art at the Ashmolean
Nicola Hunter, Head of History of Art, writes:
‘The Lower Sixth Art Historians recently had a brilliant chance to reflect upon extraordinary artworks from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Apart from analysing architecture on our way and visiting the Pre-Raphaelite, Impressionist as well as Modern Art galleries, we had an insight into prints and sketches hidden from the public eye. The experience of visiting the Western Art Print Room enabled us to see artworks which we have studied in class from a new perspective.
My favourite part of the trip was when I looked at Dürer’s ‘Adam and Eve’ under the magnifying glass. Although I knew the engraving well, it almost felt like I saw it for the very first time as I discovered Dürer’s meticulous details such as precise cross-hatching or swirling lines. It enabled me to understand the idea of Renaissance art as a mirror of reality, of which I was not aware before the trip to the Ashmolean.
Not only did we learn a lot about works of art by Michelangelo, Raphael and Goya, but also how did they produced them. Seeing unfinished sketches by the artists enabled us to follow their train of thought and the processes which led them to their final, world-renowned pieces. The trip stimulated us to think beyond the classroom: we had an opportunity to contemplate no only what we see in art, but also how and why.’
Oscar Piney, Lower Sixth pupil, writes:
‘After a day spent exploring the architecture within Oxford, the main event took place in entering the Western Art Print Room. It was a remarkable vault, deep within the Ashmolean; a place of floor-to-ceiling shelves almost overflowing with ancient papers. It was the sort of place one might expect to find in a movie: candlelit, with wizards studying their ancient, moth-bitten scrolls until the early hours of the morning. In reality, however, this room was full of prints and drawings from across art history, with works by Degas, Rembrandt and Dürer being retrieved endlessly from the surrounding drawers. A sheet of paper on a nearby desk could just as easily have been an iconic Goya print worth thousands, or the curator’s lunch receipt.
The experience was elevated even more by the fact that we had studied many of these prints in recent lessons. Having pored over these very images projected onto a whiteboard, the opportunity to see them in person was invaluable, and academically formative. In this sense, it was not only a thoroughly enjoyable experience for us all, but also a consolidatory and practically useful exercise – one that will benefit us greatly in future exams.
As we returned to school on the bus, chatter was lively on the beauty of what we had seen, and our sheer luck in attending a school only 15 minutes away from a place of such magic.’
Grace Vaughn-Williams, Lower Sixth pupil, writes:
‘The Lower Sixth History of Art trip commenced with some outdoor, classical visual analysis straight from the source: the Ashmolean! We identified the countless classical decorations such as the urns, wreaths, columns and more.
When we got into the Ashmolean we went on a hunt for the paintings on our sheets to answer questions about them on colour, composition and atmosphere, including artists such as Van Gogh, Pissarro and Renoir.
After admiring all the amazing landscapes and Impressionists we went downstairs and looked at all the marble busts of the popes and the intricate detail such as the modelling of different fabrics and textures. We stopped for a well needed break in the café and after a delicious coffee and pastry we were lucky enough to go into the Western Art Print Room. We were looking at 500-year-old sketches and prints from some of the masters such as Dürer, Michaelangelo and Raphael. This was an incredible experience. The sheer age of those prints is just astounding and to see the works of art we are studying in the flesh was awesome.’