Lesson 05: Titian to Manet

Art Appreciation · Unit 2 · Lesson 05 of 15 · ← L04 | L06

At a glance

Session codesU2·L9U2·L16
Days8
DatesFri 2026-10-09 to Fri 2026-10-16
DeliverableA2: Unit 2 comparative essay
Counts towardMid-term grades, due Thu 2026-10-29
HomeworkReading on Olympia’s reception, 30 min, set day 4, due day 6

Goal

This lesson opens with a debrief and closes with feedback, with the essay in between. Your returned storyboards come back first, so you see your own decisions before looking at anyone else’s. The essay is a comparison, not a list: a list is not a comparison. Make one claim about two pictures, and count differences only where they carry meaning.

How it runs

  • Day 1 · Thu 8 Oct · U2·L9 — break-homework debrief: storyboards returned, ten minutes silent with the criteria, find the frame where the sequence stopped being legible. CS3 posted.
  • Day 2 · Fri 9 Oct · U2·L10 — Gentileschi’s Judith, close looking: describe the violence in the painting before you describe the painter.
  • Day 3 · Sat 10 Oct · U2·L11 — Judith and the problem of the witness: who does the picture put you next to? Make-up Saturday, Sports Day after lunch.
  • Day 4 · Mon 12 Oct · U2·L12 — Titian, Venus of Urbino: what does it ask you to accept as natural. Reception reading set.
  • Day 5 · Tue 13 Oct · U2·L13 — Manet, Olympia, silent, no context: locate the exact refusals Manet is making of Titian, one by one.
  • Day 6 · Wed 14 Oct · U2·L14 — comparison workshop: build the claim, test it against the pictures.
  • Day 7 · Thu 15 Oct · U2·L15A2 sits. In class, closed, 40 minutes.
  • Day 8 · Fri 16 Oct · U2·L16 — first read-back and the bridge into food.

Assessment

  • CS3 — Fri 2026-10-09, the storyboard debrief posting.
  • A2 — in-class comparative essay, closed, 40 minutes: one claim about two pictures, evidenced from the pictures rather than the reception. Announced Wed 2026-09-30. The sitting date will be confirmed in class.
  • A2 counts toward the mid-term grades (due Thu 2026-10-29).