The Use of Religious Artwork as a Resource
Pippa Gaster
Using famous pieces of artwork in lessons can be a useful resource, whether printed as a handout,
or when used in a PowerPoint presentation at the front of the classroom. I would argue that
paintings are at their most engaging when not accompanied by descriptive text, but rather
displayed solely as a discussion starter. Indeed the teacher can use the piece of artwork as they
choose, perhaps accompanied by a short quote or simply on its own. In any case, it is a useful
resource for encouraging visual engagement from the students and is an easy way of prompting
conversation. Simple questions from the teacher such as, ‘what does this painting depict?’ and,
‘how does this compliment or depict what we’ve discussed?’ are simple methods of guiding the
students to visually consider an idea, and possibly analyse the emotions or relationships on
display. Additionally, the use of artwork as a stimulus would be a simple way of starting a task
where the students themselves produced a creative piece. Although a less common activity within
Religious Education it, nonetheless, might be a useful consideration when working with younger
class groups.
Artwork such as ‘The Creation of the World’ by Hieronymus Boch, might, for example, be a
particularly useful resource for unpacking the creation account from Genesis 1 if you are working
in a class with a high number of children with SEN, such as dyslexia, and for whom giving a larger
chunk of text to unpack might not be the most sensible or appropriate. However, one must be
careful that they are not teaching a class with a student who has issues with their eye-sight, else a
resource such as this one might actually serve to highlight their education need rather than aid
them.
The Critical Realist pedagogy, to which I, like Wright (Wright, 2000*: 280), am drawn, advocates
the need to seek an understanding of religion with ‘authenticity, integrity and truth’. Indeed as the
pedagogical name suggests, there is a striving for realism when considering different faiths so that
students may engage with a genuine picture of each religion. Therefore, it is important to
remember, not to bow too often to stereotypical imagery ‘and social biases’ (Wasson et al, 1990:
236) when using artwork, which might be inadvertent. For example, ‘Paradise’ by Cranach the
Elder, depicts the God of Genesis 2 in Eden with Adam and Eve. The painting, although a
superbly visual display of the second creation account, could be considered to perform a social
bias since God is not only depicted with long white hair and a beard, but also to be clearly of
Caucasian ethnicity. Indeed although any anthropomorphic depiction of God will require Him to
have an ethnicity of some sort, using art work like this might only strengthen the supremacy of the
European. Indeed the same could be said of paintings like Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’,
where the divine (in this case Jesus), is clearly European, and not middle-eastern which would, of
course, be a realistic and authentic image of Jesus. Indeed Jackson also acknowledges that much
media is still ‘conditioned and influenced by memories of a perceived cultural and racial
superiority’ (Jackson, 1995: 273). As our Critical Realist pedagogy would identify, we would fail to
demonstrate any authenticity or truth if the only artwork we displayed to our pupils included a
very British-looking Jesus. In order to fully adhere to the pedagogy then, we might need to ‘look
for new ways of representing and interpreting religious and cultural material which takes on
board key elements of the antiracist critique’ (Jackson, 1995: 275). This might, perhaps, be as simple
as explaining to the students when using or displaying artwork with Jesus in, that Christians
believe he was a man from C1st Palestine, rather than Western-Europe.
When considering the learning-theory behind the use of artwork, I would suggest that Kolb’s
Learning Cycle would identify well. It emphasises the effectiveness of vivid and bright experiences
in aiding memory and therefore, the use of eye-catching, colourful and engaging artwork could
well fit this criteria. Indeed it is a theory that appeals to the imaginative, and artwork could easily
appeal to this type of learner.
The Use of Religious Artwork as a Resource
Pippa Gaster
There are many advantages of using religious paintings or artwork in this way. Firstly, they are
resources that are already available and do not take that much time to create. In addition, they can
reflect on, or communicate a plethora of emotions or depict actual events. Indeed Eisenkraft
(Eisenkraft, 1999: 95), quoting Purves, Rogers and Soter, identifies that, ‘by using visuals we can
obtain student responses that we might not otherwise get through talk or writing…They provide
an opportunity to express aesthetic responses and responses to a word’s form and quality as well
as to its content.’ She therefore acknowledges that visuals (in this case religious artwork), can
allow a student to engage with a topic or idea using almost a different faculty. Thirdly, artwork
might demonstrate an idea or concept in a way not previously thought of by the student and so
help clarification. It might allow for the teacher to scaffold a particularly challenging concept by
displaying an image to help the student understand the progression of learning, though this
would require the teacher to be able to identify where they envisaged a difficulty in the
understanding of the pupil. A further advantage is that artwork can spark whole-class discussions
over an issue or topic, which, as Cherish indicated within our group dialogue, could improve the
speaking and listening skills of the pupils. Indeed, although regarding art-tours rather than
artwork in the classroom, Stone (Stone, 1997: 149) interestingly suggests that artwork inspired
discussion, ‘may be more suitable for long term retention of information’ than a lecture. It is worth
emphasising again that she argues this with respect to art-tours, and for adult learning, yet it still
identifies the strength of using discussion surrounding a piece of artwork, for extended storage in
the memory. Yet another advantage might be that using artwork as a stimulus, rather than a piece
of text, would allow for differentiation since it is less likely that a Special Educational Need would
cause prohibitions. That students can have relative autonomy in identifying the crucial aspects of
the painting is another positive outcome of using artwork, since there may not be a right answer
about what is being shown and the student can engage in their own way. Finally, displaying
religious art could be considered a novel, active resource, and one unlikely used in too many other
subjects.
However, there might also be some draw-backs of using artwork as a stimulus; one must use
either a PowerPoint or print out the image, with the previous option requiring a confidence in the
ICT available and that the classroom allows for a decent reflection of the picture (i.e. not too light),
the latter needs a considerable amount of ink and it may not be possible to present an image that is
clear. Secondly, it still might take a little time to research or find an appropriate image. Indeed one
needs to select the image carefully since it needs to link usefully (and fairly obviously) to the topic
at hand, else more class time will be taken up with explaining why this piece of art has been
chosen. In other words, if the piece of artwork has quite a tenuous link, it might make the task
seem quite futile if, ultimately, the teacher-led discussion at the end is taken up with a
demonstration of how the jump from the artwork to the topic is made. Finally, as Steph identified
in our group discussion, the teacher also needs to be aware of any likelihood of causing offence.
This might result from the student having to engage with a distressing piece of art; one that
displays extreme violence or death for example. Yet it could also happen through a failure to
acknowledge the beliefs of different religions. For instance, one must be careful not to show a
picture of Allah or Muhammad (pbuh) since this can cause great distress to those who follow
Islam. Of course, this is all-the-more-likely within a subject like Religious Education which deals
directly with the divine or transcendent.
Eisenkraft, S.L., 1999 A Gallery of Visual Response: Artwork in the Literature Classroom
Jackson, R., 1995 Religious Education’s Representation of ‘Religions’ and ‘Cultures’
Stone., D.L., 1997 A Comparative Study of Two Art Museum Tours and Their Impact on Adult Learning
Wasson, R.F., Stuhr, P.L., Petrovich-Mwaniki, L., 1990 Teaching Art in the Multicultural Classroom:
Six Position Statements
Wright, A., 2000 The Contours of Critical Religious Education: Knowledge, Wisdom, Truth
The Use of Religious Artwork as a Resource
Pippa Gaster
Despite there being some complications in using them, I would strongly recommend and
encourage the use of artwork in lessons.