Year 5 were finally able to enjoy the enrichment opportunity that was meant to take place back in January to launch our Ancient Greeks topic when Southampton City Art Gallery came to visit us here in school.

Kate, our art guide and instructor for our sculptures came and shared with us the story of Perseus, the details from the art gallery are here below (see end of article) and you can see the images on their website here:

https://www.southamptoncityartgallery.com/collection/the-perseus-series/

The children then went on to make their own wire sculptures of Medusa -  a real challenge but a wonderful opportunity to show our creativity and dexterity.

Many thanks to Kate and Becky for making this such a great and memorable day for all of us in year 5.

See more images of our day here and you can watch a video of our exploits below.

The Perseus Series

In 1875 the politician Lord Arthur Balfour commissioned Burne-Jones to create a series of paintings for the music room of his London home. Burne-Jones’s  work was often inspired by mythology and legend and presented an imaginative world focused on beauty of form and spirit. A re-telling of the Perseus myth in William Morris’s poem ‘The Earthly Paradise’ provided the subject.  Burne-Jones worked on the project for ten years but it was never completed. Southampton Art Gallery has ten full-size studies in gouache, ‘cartoons’ which Burne-Jones made to perfect his designs before beginning the final paintings in oil.