Senior semester exam alternative: Two Masks video project

Pieter Brueghel the Younger - Portrait of a farmer
Originally uploaded by trudeau

The Two Masks video project is an homage to the work of Renaissance masters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel.

This is a portfolio exam project. We are trying to rise above the misery and tedium brought on by orthodox exams.

In keeping with Fine Arts class attempts to memorialize great works by bringing them to life - to make them a memorable part of our lives - students will create a Renaissance Dance video production that meets the following criteria . . .

a) All students will produce 2 masks - a frontal or three-quarters portrait of a Renaissance-era person and one of a skull - that fill out the space on a standard 8.5X11 sheet.
b) Portraits may be printed out from a Google image search of Renaissance-era portraits. But sheet must be glued to a cardboard or card stock backing so that the image may be used as a quasi-mask without collapsing.
b) Skull and portrait must be printed so that they fill out the space, almost touching the edge of the page at top, bottom and sides. Cite the source - Not google images - on back.
c) Video will show you dancing a simple shuffle-stamp-turn-hop-hop step called a "Canario," as shown in "The Majesty of Renaissance Dance," Youtube.com. Go to 3:01 to see the "Canario" section. We will dance a simple form of the steps you see.
d) Simple costumes. The video will focus on the feet and the masks.
e) Females in long skirt or dress (borrow one!), white socks and dark flat shoes.
f) Males in long-sleeve white shirts, dark shorts, white socks, dark leather shoes.
g) We will rehearse next class and shoot at the end of the following class.

The background is that both Bosch and Bruegel pursued the theme of mortality. On one hand is the joy of dance, music and courtship. The dance will begin with everyone holding the mask of the portrait over their face. Life seems lovely and joyous - see Bruegel's "The Wedding Dance," 1566. See the cavorting figures in Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights."

After 3 repetitions of the shuffle-stamp-hop-turn pattern, students will drop the portrait and raise the skull. After 3 additional repetitions, the lines of dancers will form a group and stare stoically at the camera from behind their skulls.

Bosch believed that death would bring human souls to a difficult state called "Hell." Bruegel was also mordant as he addressed mortality in "The Tower of Babel," and showed viewers a Danse Macabre in "The Triumph of Death."