How can the works of a sixteenth
century Italian renaissance painter help teach children about nutrition and inspire
healthy eating? Students engage
in educational activities about nutrition at Choose My Plate sites and explore the fruit and vegetable paintings
of sixteenth century Italian painter, Giuseppe
Arcimboldo. The culmination
results in a creation of their own works of sculpted and painted “healthy art”
while learning how to identify various foods to construct a nutritious meal.
Italian
Renaissance (unknowingly surrealist) artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo's [jew-SEP-pay
arch-im-BOLD-OH] works prove to fascinate and inspire
participants of all ages and disciplines. The obvious integration of nutrition inspired
by Arcimboldo’s “food faces” led me to the wealth of resources for teachers and
children at the U.S. Department of Agriculture site choosemyplate.gov. Always
striving to incorporate the lesser experienced tactile kinesthetic art activities,
I envisioned engagement in the art elements of form, texture, and color through sculpture using Crayola Model
Magic and painting with tempera paints. The process and products confirmed
Arcimboldo-inspired food faces were an avenue to awareness of healthy nutrition
as well as a creative visual arts endeavor.
Objectives:
- Classify the different food groups and select foods from healthy food groups
- Sculpt and paint foods that represent a healthy, balanced diet using Model Magic and tempera paints
- Create a surreal portrait using the sculpted foods, inspired by the work Giuseppe of Arcimboldo
- Describe and/or write about their portrait; describe/write a healthy recipe, including ingredients and well-ordered instructions
Concepts:
● Health
● Nutrition
● Giuseppe Arcimboldo
● Portrait
● Surrealism
● Sculpture
● Form
● Texture
● Color
● Descriptive writing
Materials:
● Images of portraits by Giuseppe
Arcimboldo
● Images
of fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods
● Paper/index cards (for sketches,
planning, and descriptive writing)
● Model Magic
● Styrofoam plates
● Tempera Paint
● Paint brushes
● Glue
● Optional:
real fruits and vegetables
Teaching/Learning Procedures:
Step 1: Explore and engage in USDA MyPlate resources on an
Interactive White Board (SMART Board) and discuss a nutritious, balanced diet.
Explore the images, music, songs, activities and other various resources for
learning about nutrition at www.choosemyplate.gov .
Step 2: View the art and history of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Discuss the
artist’s biography and what he used to create his faces (portraits). Discuss
concepts such as portraits, surrealism, sculpture and the elements of
art (form, texture and color). Create similar faces, and
instead of drawing eyes, lips and noses, (facial
features) sculpt vegetables, fruits and other healthy foods to represent
facial features.
Step 3: Explore the art elements of form, texture and
color as clay, Play-doh, or Model Magic is manipulated to demonstrate sculpting
various healthy foods to use in Giuseppe-inspired portraits. Sculpt foods to represent a balanced meal, representing
knowledge of nutrition and creativity to compose a portrait and
represent facial features.
Step 4: Arrange
(composition) sculpted foods to create
a unique surreal portrait. Experiment with the composition of the food, arranging forms on a plate in
various ways to create a portrait. Once satisfied with the composition, glue
the foods to the plate and paint with tempera.
Step 5: Write
a description of the portrait on an index card, indicating what food was used
for each facial feature and develop a healthy recipe including the ingredients
and clear, well-ordered instructions.
Table 1. Nutrition and
Health Books and Web Sites
Books
The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Fruits and Vegetables / Frutas y vegetales (bilingual) by
Gladys Rosa-Mendoza and illustrations by Linda Holt Ayriss
Healthy Foods from A to Z / Comida sana da la A a la Z by Stephanie Maze
and photographs by Renee Comet
Web Sites
United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) Health and Nutrition Information
The USDA's food guidance system’s
new MyPlate symbol and other materials to help Americans make healthy food
choices and to be active every day.
Health and nutrition information
for preschoolers. This section of the website is for parents and caregivers of
children 2 through 5 years of age.
MyPlate Kids’ Place. Games,
activity sheets, videos, songs, move more, recipes, and various other health
and nutrition resources for students.
Nutrition Lesson Plan. Students
will gain an understanding of what kinds of foods comprise a healthy meal
through correctly combining foods into meals using pictures and graphics
provided.
Nourish Interactive . Printable
nutrition lesson plans and a variety of health and nutrition education
resources for elementary school teachers, children’s computer labs, health care
educators, and community health centers.
Table 2. Arcimboldo Visual
Arts Books and Web Sites
Books
Arcimboldo: Visual Jokes, Natural History, and Still-Life Painting by
Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann
Hello, Fruit Face!: The Paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo by Claudia
Strand
Sticker Art Shapes: Archimboldo by Louise Cognar
Web Sites
Giuseppe Arcimboldo: The Complete
Works
Food Face Fun: Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Summer. An extensive early childhood
lesson developed by the Denver Art Museum where students explore Arcimboldo’s Summer
by touching and examining the real fruits and vegetables that he included
in his painting. Students arrange the food into a profile sculpture.
Arcimboldo's Feast for the Eyes
Smithsonian resources on renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo who painted
witty, surreal portraits composed of fruits, vegetables, fish and trees
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/arcimboldos-feast-for-the-eyes-74732989/
KinderArt Lesson on Fruit and
Vegetable Portraits
Resources
U.S.
Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010.
Available at: http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines.htm.
O'Donnell SI, Hoerr SL, Mendoza
JA, Tsuei Goh E. Nutrient quality of fast food kids meals. Am J Clin Nutr.
2008;88(5):1388-1395. PMID: 18996876.
