Art Lesson, Palace of Versailles

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Art Lesson Plan for The Family School


The Art of Versailles - Le Vau, Le Brun, and Nôtre


Desired Result: Children will understand that the Palace of Versailles is one magnificent work of art built by many artists. They will learn that when we work together we can accomplish more.
Academic Concept: The Palace of Versailles was a work of art created by many artists.
Gospel Principle: When we work together we accomplish more than when we work alone.
Preparation & Materials
A bucket or other container of medium sized objects such as blocks, cotton balls, LEGO’s, or balls.

Vocabulary 
Baroque—a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that used ornate detail
architect—a person who designs buildings and in many cases also supervises their construction
interior designer—one who designs and decorates the inside of a building
symmetry—an object has symmetry when one half of the object is a mirror image of the other half

LESSON
Attention Activity
I am going to dump out this bucket of __________ (medium sized objects such as blocks, cotton balls, LEGO’s, or balls.) I will set a timer for 30 seconds and I want to see how many of these you can pick up by yourself. Who wants to volunteer? } Count the objects when finished and compliment efforts.
Now I am going to dump these objects out again and have everyone help pick them up at the same time. Let’s see how many we can pick up in 30 seconds working together. } Count the objects retrieved and compliment teamwork.
  • Were we able to pick up more objects working together or by ourselves? (Working together.)
Today we are going to learn about a group of artists who created something amazing by working together. They created an enormous palace called the Palace of Versailles. (Sounds like "verse-eye")

Lesson
We are going to start our lesson today by watching a video about the Palace of Versailles. While you watch the video I want you to look for three important things: Why was this palace built? Who helped build it? What was the building before it became the Palace of Versailles? 
  • Why was this palace built? (To honor King Louis XIV.)
  • Who helped build it? (A lot of people.)
  • What was the building before it became the Palace of Versailles? (A hunting lodge.)
  • What do you think of this palace? (Accept any answer.)
  • Would you like to live there? (Accept any answer.)
  • Did King Louis XIV of France design the palace? (No.) 
King Louis XIV commissioned the building to be built, which means he hired other people to build it. 
King Louis XIV was not happy ruling the country of France from Paris. Paris was the most popular city in France. Rich families who had lived in Paris for a long time gossiped together and took control of decisions that King Louis wanted to make himself. He wanted the people to recognize how wise and powerful he was as their king. So, he decided he would move the entire royal court to a new part of France where the palace would be bigger and better and more beautiful than anything anyone had ever seen. Then, people could not deny his importance and power. 
King Louis XIV had a hunting lodge in beautiful Versailles, France. He thought this would make a nice spot for his new palace. He got his best royal artists to design for him a grand “chalet.” (Chalet means, “home” in French.) When it was completed this palace housed over 20,000 people. It was a BIG house! (https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/baroque-art1/france/a/chteau-de-versailles)
Let’s learn about a few of the main people who designed Louis XIV’s palace. First we will learn about the architect of the palace who designed the outside, and then we will talk about the man who designed and decorated the inside. Lastly we will learn about the landscape artist who designed the yard and gardens. 

Exterior

The architect of the Palace of Versailles was Louis le Vau. 
  • What is an architect? (A person who designs buildings.)
This is a portrait of the architect, Louis le Vau. } Show (2) Portrait of Louis Le Vau. Louis le Vau was the greatest architect of the Baroque period. Under the direction of Louis XIV he created the main designs which transformed the hunting lodge into the most celebrated royal palace in the world. He was trained by his father who was a stone mason (brick maker). He loved the designs and Italian Baroque architecture of Bernini and learned a lot from this style. Le Vau’s own designs, however, are of the classical Baroque style that focused on order, balance and symmetry. He designed huge structures that gave a sense of enduring power, which means that he made buildings to last! He designed many incredible Baroque structures including the famous Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte and the Palais du Louvre. This is a picture of the Louvre East Wing that Louis XIV paid Le Vau to design before he started his project on the Palace of Versailles. (https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/monarchy-enlightenment/baroque-art1/france/a/chteau-de-versailles)
} Show (3) Louvre East Wing by Le Vau. Look at how there is a tall fancy building in the center. Then on either side there is a long plain section followed by another tall section. It is the same on both sides—almost like a butterfly body with two identical wings. This is called symmetry. A building has symmetry when one half of the building is a mirror image of the other half. Symmetrical architecture was important to Baroque builders. They felt it gave the building balance and order.
  • When you build with blocks, do you like to make things look symmetrical—the same on both sides? (Accept any answer.)
  • Think of the front of our home. Does our home look symmetrical on the outside or not? (Accept any answer.)

Interior

It’s important for the outside (the exterior) of a building to be beautiful, but Louis XIV didn’t just want the outside of his palace to be beautiful. He wanted the interior to be extraordinary as well. So Louis XIV hired the best designer he knew, Charles Le Brun, to decorate the inside of his masterpiece palace. 
Here is a portrait of Charles Le Brun. } Show (4) Portrait of Charles Le Brun. Le Brun was an exceptional artist, even when he was a child. As he got older he didn’t just paint, he also designed, decorated, and sculpted. He had the ability to see “the big picture” and design large beautiful projects. He gained the favor of the king and became the Chief Painter to King Louis XIV. He did many projects for him, including designing and decorating the interior of the Great Palace of Versailles. He painted the ceiling and designed the most famous room in the palace, the Hall of Mirrors. } Show (5) Hall of Mirrors. 
  • Would you like to visit the Hall of Mirrors? (Accept any answer.)
The Hall of Mirrors started as just a big long room, but Le Brun worked magic! With statues, the repetition of mirrors, painted ceilings, chandeliers, and windows to the gardens, he created one of the most beautiful rooms in history. Let’s see a modern view inside this Hall. } Show (6) Hall of Mirrors Video.
Le Brun also drew the statues used for the park at Versailles for other sculptors to create. He was also in charge of the production of the royal furniture and tapestries, like rugs and curtains. Unfortunately, during the French Revolution the beautiful furniture was removed and sold, but Le Brun’s furniture designs are still praised as the best of the Baroque period. (http://en.chateauversailles.fr/history/versailles-during-the-centuries/the-palace-construction/charles-le-brun-1619-1690)

Landscape

This enormous palace, sitting all by itself, with all its finery would have seemed just too grand (kind of like way too much frosting on a cupcake) if it weren’t for the expertly designed yard and gardens surrounding the palace. Many say the Park of Versailles is even more beautiful than the palace itself! The exquisite terraces, lakes, pools, lawns and vistas were designed by André Le Nôtre. 
} Show (7) Portrait of Andre Le Notre. André Le Nôtre was born in Paris, into a family of gardeners. The family lived in a house within the Tuileries, beautiful formal gardens next to the Louvre in Paris. André grew up surrounded by gardening, and quickly learned how to be a master gardener himself. Where he lived was just a short walk away from the Palais du Louvre, which was an academy of the arts. He went to school there and learned mathematics, painting, and architecture from the best of the best. He didn’t express his love for art using paint and brushes like most artists. Nature was his tool. (http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/versailles-palace.htm)
Let’s look at one small part of the gardens of Versailles designed by Andre le Notre.
} Show (8) Gardens at Versailles. Looking at pictures of the Park of Versailles from above you might think the gardens seem stiff, formal and too geometric. But, when you walk through these gardens you can see why this is called one of man’s greatest works of art. Notre used the natural rolling hills of the land to turn an entire forest into a park with different views and surprises at every turn—a pavilion here, a fountain, sculpture or reflecting pool there. He was a master of his art! (Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, Horst de la Croix and Richard G. Tansey, 1986 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (pp. 758-764) 
Today we have seen that the The Palace of Versailles is a work of art inside and out. Thanks to the team of Louis le Vau (architect), Charles le Brun (interior decorator and painter), and André le Nôtre (landscape designer extraordinaire), Louis XIV’s dream palace became a living masterpiece that still amazes tourists almost 400 years later. “The Palace of Versailles was a work of art created by many artists.” Write this academic concept on the board. 
GOSPEL CONNECTION
Gospel Principle: When we work together we accomplish more than when we work alone.
  • Do you think that any one artist could have made Versailles as beautiful as it is all by himself. (No.)
With the help of a lot of people with different talents and skills it became one giant masterpiece.
  • How do you think the palace of Versailles would have looked if the artists didn’t work and plan together? (Accept any answer.)
Like the Palace of Versailles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is like one big masterpiece that is created by many dedicated members. It takes a lot of people to help the Church work as God planned.
Jesus Christ lets all of us be a part of this beautiful and great work. He taught that working together is the only way we will succeed. He said: “If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (Mark 3:24–25)
  • Do we get more accomplished as a family when we work together or when we argue and fight? (When we work together.)
  • Do we accomplish very much when we are selfish and only look out for our own needs? (No.)
T.E.A.M. is an acronym that stands for Together Everyone Achieves More.
  •  Do you think this is true in our family? Do we accomplish more when we work together as a team? (Yes.)
  • Why do you think we accomplish more as a team? (Because “many hands make light work.” Because each one of us has different talents.)
Elder L. Tom Perry gave us an example of how the pioneers worked together to achieve more. In his April 1987 general conference address, Elder Perry talked about the “get it done together” spirit of the early men and women of the restored Church. When husbands and fathers left for missionary service to distant lands, they felt peace knowing their brothers, sisters, priesthood leaders, and friends would step in and look after their families in their absence.
These brethren, taught Elder Perry, could build the Lord’s kingdom in faraway nations knowing that others were building the kingdom at home by caring for their loved ones. There was a special faith found in the “community of Saints” working together in a common purpose.
  • Do you think we could learn something about working together from the pioneers? (Accept any answer.)
Elder Perry said, “As I travel throughout the Church I marvel at all the positive things that are occurring. Yet I never feel that we, as a people, are living up to our real potential. My sense is that we do not always work together, that we are still too much interested in aspirations for personal honors and success, and show too little interest in the common goal of building the kingdom of God.” (Viewpoint: Working Together to Achieve More)
According to Elder Perry, we could all be better at working together in the church.
  • How can we be better at helping to build up the kingdom of God with other people? (Share our talents willingly. Serve in callings. Pray for our leaders. Be missionaries to our friends. Serve others. Listen reverently in primary.)
We all have different skills, talents and gifts God has blessed us with. When we put all of these things together in our families and in the Church, together we help to build God’s kingdom—His church on the earth. Like the magnificent artists who created the Palace at Versailles, “When we work together we accomplish more than when we work alone.” Write this gospel principle on the board. 

ART PROJECTS
Littles Activity:  Coloring Page and Imaginary Palace
  1. Color the “Hall of Mirrors Coloring Page” with crayons.
  2. On the back of the coloring page, draw a picture of your own imaginary palace. 
  3. Write the name for your palace at the bottom of the paper.  Then write names of any special rooms that are in your palace, like game room, library, dance hall, etc.

Middles Activity: Architecture Activity—Create a Hall of Mirrors.
  1. Using cardboard boxes, tin foil, gold spray paint, and colored paper, create your own small scale Hall of Mirrors.
  2. First build a room out of an upside down shoebox.  Cut out the windows carefully with scissors to see inside.
  3. Create each mirror with foil and gold paint for the frames.
  4. Then glue each mirror into the room.
  5. Draw and color in the details surrounding the mirrors.
  6. Add furniture or plants in the hall with cardboard.
  7. When your Hall of Mirrors is finished, take a photograph of the miniature Hall of Mirrors and place it in the art notebook behind the My Art Projects divider.
Assignment: Design your own imaginary palace. Be sure to label the rooms and write about some of its special features.

Bigs Activity: Make a Landscape or Interior Design Project of Your Choice.
  1. Choose a room in your house, or a spot in your yard and make a plan for designing it more beautifully. 
  2. Sketch out the plan first.
  3. Make a list of supplies you will need to do the project.
  4. With your parents permission price out the supplies, make a budget and carry out the redesign.
  5. When you finish, place a photo of your project (or design) in the art notebook behind the My Art Projects divider.
Assignment: Design your own imaginary palace or dream home. Be sure to label the rooms and write about some of its special features. Include a design for the gardens and landscaping.
MORE FUN with VERSAILLES The following ideas are for individual or family enrichment and can be used to supplement or prepare for this lesson.

Look through Versailles3D, an awesome interactive website showing the complete palace history in interactive pictures. 
Family Night Idea: Put together all of the children’s designs and drawings for their “dream house” to make one giant estate.

Enrichment Resources
Awesome interactive website showing the complete palace history in interactive pictures. http://www.versailles3d.com/en/
Sources:
Lesson Plan Resources
(1) History of the Palace of Versailles (7:57) - This has part 1: history of palace and part: 2 gardens
(6) Hall of Mirrors video (1:35)
(4) Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, Horst de la Croix and Richard G. Tansey, 1986 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, (pp. 758-764) 

(5) https://www.lds.org/church/news/viewpoint-working-together-to-achieve-more?lang=eng