I did not notice until yesterday that a very proper and very, very smart nun with a history of teaching and art was also a master of polite sarcasm.
My kids and I were watching Sister Wendy’s story of Painting and reading another chapter in her book of the same name. Art history with Sister Wendy reinforces and makes additional connections to the events and people of the history the kids are learning, as well as helping them to understand composition and technique. But Sister Wendy is also teaching my kids the fine art of polite sarcasm.
My children sat on either side of me, magnifying glasses in hand so they could investigate each tiny detail of the paintings discussed in the text. We were looking over Sister Wendy’s comparison of illuminations from England, France, Ireland, and Spain, all from the same rough time period.
And then we came to this statement, “Like the Irish monks, the British also produced manuscripts of great beauty, this being one of the very few periods in which the least visual of national groups, the English speakers, attained international fame as artists.”
“Hmmm,” I thought to myself.
As we continued, my children began to pick up on the sarcasm as well.
We got to the section discussing the Bayeux Tapestry and Sister Wendy wrote, “It displays the same jerky animation that we find in English manuscripts. A sort of Anglo-Saxon glorified comic strip…”
Finally we read through the section on French illumination in which Sister Wendy wrote, “A lovely missal survives…,” and “…with a magnificent pictorial “O” and…”
“OK,” said my son. “She definitely likes the French best and the English least.”
While her sarcasm stings and is quite apparent, it is also exceedingly polite. A grand way to show her preferences and dislikes.
And, once my children recognized her sarcasm, the whole activity of studying art became an interactive one. First understanding Sister Wendy’s preferences, the reasons behind them, enjoying her wit, and finally forming their own opinions on the art or artist in question.
All in all, a perfect way to study art.
