AQA History of Art and Velazquez's the Spinners

AQA History of Art and Velazquez's 'The Spinners'

 Just as a follow up to my last post I thought I’d make it nice and explicit just how ‘The Spinners’ could be a useful example to teach under the AQA syllabus:

This is a great one to examine in terms of composition, and technique for Unit 1 because its structure is challenging to describe. But an analysis contributes to an eventual interpretation of the subject, as my essay hopefully outlined.

It’s also highly versatile for teaching Unit 2. It’s a mythological subject, so under “Subjects and Genres” could be judged alongside another representation of mythology … How about Titian’s Europa painting that actually features within the Velazquez? Under “Materials, Techniques and Processes” Velazquez’s skilful manipulation of the viscosity of oil paints could be analysed. The ‘Baroque’ qualities of the painting could be assessed under “Form and Style”, and lastly the representation of women could be a fascinating project for “Gender, Nationality and Ethnicity.” Going against the grain of most other paintings of women from the history of art, here the females are portrayed as creators rather than muses, and active participants rather than passive observers. Thus an interesting comparison to the near-contemporary ‘Art of Painting’ by Vermeer could be made.

And of course it’s a fantastic one to look at in Unit 3 (Seventeenth Century topic).