This week our Godolphin Plus Junior activities offered a plethora of interest and excitement. Mrs
Whiteley started us off on Monday evening with another relaxing sketch-booking session in
Cooper. Sketch book pages are beginning to fill up and the creative inspiration is contagious
amongst the group of participants.
Quoting from the blurb on the game box - Become an
outdoor decor pro ‘in this cutting hedge hidden object game!’
We headed for the ICT suite
on Tuesday evening where
technological
simulation
transported us to a virtual
garden.
Miss Thomas
introduced us to the world of
‘Gardenscapes’ where, with
the help of Austin, the butler,
you search for hidden
objects, raise money for a
garden project, design a lawn
layout, add garden accessories
and even compete in a ‘Best
Garden’ contest.
The stories behind a sculpture and painting on a wedding chest captured our imagination on
Wednesday when Mrs Radice inspired us to look beyond the surfaces of each piece of artwork.
Read on and find out for yourselves ………
Exploring Art: Every Picture Tells a Story
Two sad tales of love and loss
This term, junior boarders explored two great works of art about the pain of love and loss. The
first, a sculpture made in the seventeenth century by Gian Lorenzo Bernini when he was only in his
twenties, shows the god Apollo chasing the wood nymph Daphne. He had foolishly boasted to
Cupid that he would never feel the pain of love so Cupid thought he would show him! He fired a
golden arrow of love into Apollo and a lead arrow into Daphne which made her loathe the next
thing she saw. Apollo, of course, saw Daphne and fell immediately head over heels in love with
her, but she ran away from him and didn’t want to have anything to do with him. She could hear
him crashing through the wood as he chased her and when she felt his breath on her hair, she was
so frightened that he was catching up with her that she cried out for help to her father, a river god.
Unfortunately, he thought it was a good idea to turn her into a tree. As we walk around Bernini’s
sculpture we can almost see the transformation happening before our eyes. Daphne’s fingers start
to grow leaves and her toes become rooted to the ground. He has polished the marble so that it
looks like soft flesh and made the bark that is starting to cover her, look rough. Apollo still loved
her, even though she was a tree and always wore a wreath of laurel leaves in his hair. As he was the
god of poetry among other things, in art all poets are shown wearing laurel wreaths and the best
one in the country is known as the Poet Laureate.
The other rather sad tale of love and loss was painted in 1495 by Piero di Cosimo on the front of a
marriage chest. It shows the death of Procris who had been killed by accident when spying on her
beloved husband Cephalus. Someone had told her he was in love with someone else. He wasn’t,
but when he heard a noise in the bushes, he thought it was a wild beast and threw his
spear….killing instead his wife, Procris, whom he adored. Her faithful dog, Lelaps, is pictured on
the right reminding us that true love is based on trust, not doubt. The newly married couple who
owned this chest would be reminded about the dangers of listening to gossip and doubt every time
they opened it.
The early evening, informal concert on Thursday was enjoyed by Mrs Ávila, Ian and our Prep
boarders. The calming and captivating influence of the music was continued on Saturday evening
when Mrs Ávila held a ‘Chill and Pamper’ session. On Sunday, with tissues on hand, Walters House
boarders joined Mr and Mrs Portas and some of the Senior and Sixth Form boarders for a trip to
the cinema to see War Horse. Many, many tears were shed but everyone thoroughly enjoyed the
film!
Edition Sixteen
16th – 22nd January 2012