Tableaux

The very first activity we did in Educational Technology was to make what Professor Langran called "tableaux."

The only time I'd ever come across this term before was in Edith Wharton's House of Mirth.  In the novel, the Gilded Age New York society ladies, always casting about for suitable diversion, briefly lit upon the idea of tableaux vivants, or selecting key moments in classical history or famous plays or great works of literature, and enacting the selected moment.  They would create elaborate costumes and erect complicated settings, and then ensconce themselves into specially-built platforms, surrounded by frames and covered by heavy velvet curtains.  Ladies of means would throw large Tableaux Balls, in which the entertainment highlight would be when the party-goers would assemble before these platforms and admire the women as the curtains opened, first on Cleopatra and her asp, here; then on the drowning of Ophelia, over here; then on Delilah cutting the hair of Samson, over there.  The assembled audiences would clap, and at one such party they actually rated the tableaux and the top performer got a prize.

Like so much else that Mrs. Wharton wrote about, this evidently was actually a fad, for a brief phase in Mrs. Astor's New York.

Tableaux vivants were only briefly in fashion, but the concept of selecting and illustrating a single pivotal moment of a longer text is very old indeed.  Artist have been doing it for millennia.  Note that the Delilah link above routes to an earlier painting by Rubens.  And here is Millais' Ophelia; and here is Artemesia Gentileschi's*  Cleopatra.  And, to link over to projects that I'm working on elsewhere, here is Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven; and here is Isis sheltering Horus from Seth's wrath.

Long before I ever came to Educational Technology, I've been interested in this.  Of the whole story of Narcissis, which moment did Caravaggio choose to paint?  Of all the Divine Comedy, which was the moment that Botticelli chose?  Out of the whole Genesis creation story, which is the specific moment that Michaelangelo chose for the Sistine Chapel?  Why that moment?  Given the moment these artists chose, and the illustrations they produced to give form to that moment, what can we infer about their understanding of the text?  How can looking at these works of art inform our own reading?

I've always been particularly interested in this approach as a means of giving focus to stories in the Bible, which have, of course, served as artistic inspiration for centuries.  The Guinea Pigs and I have often, therefore, looked at artists' renditions of Torah and Bible stories we read.  Over the years I've collected a number of books that make this linkage easy...

...by providing the text right alongside great works of art illustrating what I'll now call tableaux from the story.  But we also do it a number of other ways too; we've collected a great number of postcards which the Pigs pass around; I scoop up old editions of Janson's at our library's annual used book sale and (gasp!) cut up them up for the prints; and we also use regular art books propped up into cookbook holders.  One way or another, we look at what artists have done to select and illustrate a particular moment.

And then sometimes, if time and interest levels allow, we do our own illustrations: 

Susanna at the Well

by Guinea Pig #1

Moses Hears the Burning Bush

by Guinea Pig #1

Samson Pulling Down the Walls

by Guinea Pig #2

It's a really great activity, having kids choose what they consider to be the "critical moment" of a story and then doing something to demonstrate their understanding.  It forces them to listen to the story carefully and actively.  It keeps them focused on the text, and gets them to consider "what is important in the story?" as opposed to the much easier question (that far too many schools spend far too much time on) of "how do I feel about the story?"  It assesses their comprehension of the story.  It's fun to do.  And it creates a record (we put the drawings into a pretty leather binder, which they like to look back on) which in turn reinforces the stories and the learnings.

Doing it Digitally

Recently, we tried digital tableaux at home.  The festival of Purim is coming up, so we dusted off our favorite retelling of the Esther story:

After we reread the story, the younger Pigs each chose what they considered to be the most important moment from the story.  (Guinea Pig #1 considers herself too old, these days, to engage in dress-up and re-enactment.  Sigh.  Perhaps I'll leave a copy of House of Mirth on her pillow...)

This is the moment that Guinea Pig #3 chose:

The Pig Speaks:  "I chose the moment when King Ahasuerus chose Esther to be the new queen and he put the crown on her. I chose it because it was really good for the Jews that he chose Esther, and so that feels good for me."

This is the moment in the story that Guinea Pig #2 chose:

The Pig Speaks:  "I chose the moment after Esther walked through the seven gates and the King lowered his scepter to allow Esther to speak.  The palace rules were, if he hadn't lowered his scepter, then Esther would be killed.  I chose this moment because I remember the first time I read this story, I was scared that she would die."

It may not be theology, but it's enough to be getting on with.

Anyway, I'm not throwing the art books or the Prismacolor pencils away, but I can see some real advantages to doing tableaux digitally:  

• It's really quick (better, maybe, for a classroom).  
• It generates no mess (better, maybe, for a classroom).  
• By middle school, many kids have worked themselves into a belief that they are not "artistic" (a whole 'nuther subject), which can serve as a barrier to drawing and illustrating.
• It's really, really easy to pop those tableaux pics onto a class blog, if you happen to have a class blog.  Which then serves as a built-in record and a means of reinforcement (not to mention, communication to parents).

And... I just discovered this benefit today, as I put the pictures up: 

• It's very easy to search on line for great works by other artists, to provide a comparison tableaux that illustrates the same text.    (I recommend this site).   Much easier than the post-it note, accordian file, and a-whole-lot-in-my-head system that we use around here.

And  finally...

• Pulling up an Internet file and looking at a painting projected onto a screen (to view aforementioned great works of art serving as tableaux for the same text) may be better for a full classroom than the passing around of a 4x6 postcard, or peering at the book propped up into a cookbook holder, that the Pigs and I do here at home.
  

Resources:

Esther's Story, by Diane Wolkstein, illustrated by Juan Wijngaard.  The best of several retellings of the Esther story, narrated in Esther's voice in the form of a journal.  It appears, sigh, to be out of print.  I hate that.

Queen Esther the Morning Star, by Mordecai Gerstein, is probably the best substitute, though it's for slightly younger children and doesn't have the wistfulness or the undercurrent of fear that makes Wolkstein's version so appealing.

The Illustrated Hebrew Bible, edited and adapted by Ellen Frankel.  I have given this beautiful book to countless bar and bat mitzvah kids over the years.  It keeps wandering out of then back into print, in apparently ever-declining-quality bindings, so buying used is probably a good idea.

Stories from the Old Testament: With Masterwork Paintings Inspired by the Stories.  Out of print, though there are a couple of copies available used through this link.

Women of the Bible, edited by Carole Armstrong.  Also out of print (what can I say), though well worth the $2 for which it's currently available used on Amazon.

Listen to Her Voice, edited by Miki Raver.  This one's still in print.  Both it and the prior one focus only on the stories in which women appear.

*  Mostly-unrelated sidebar:  Please wander around this quite terrific site devoted to the life and art of Artemesia Gentileschi, an extraordinary artist whose name would without doubt be far better known had she happened to have been born a more-favored gender.  Guinea Pig#1 and I did a unit on her a few years ago, and I wish we'd had a resource like this at the time.  It took us weeks to get one art book from interlibrary loan.