Looking at beautiful things can be powerful and make a difference in children’s lives. I believe this as both an art teacher and a person invested in training the minds and improving the hearts of young people.
I was reminded of this fact in an unlikely way the other day. Walking down the grammar school hallway, I stopped to ponder an unusual occurrence. A third grade boy stood with his back against the wall staring, as if spellbound, at a work of art on the wall across from him. While his classmates were occupied with a restroom break, he had chosen to leave his friends to observe a beautiful work of art. As I contemplated the boy’s unexpected behavior, I was further impressed with his inner and outward calm—a disposition normally absent in this student.
Great works of art, which have stood the test of time, can impact viewers both physically and psychologically. Art can encourage the viewer to step away from the mundane and think about the transcendent, the infinite, and the absolute. It possesses a power to move the viewer to feel good and do what is right. Ellen Winner, a professor of psychology at Boston College, explained the power of looking by stating, “If you look at something for a long period of time and try to understand it, you get a deeper pleasure.” I suspected that this student had found a deeper pleasure, something that impacted him positively and prompted him toward good.
As I stood in the hallway, I wondered to myself what could be so special about this artwork out of the hundreds in the hallways that captivated this student’s attention. I was especially intrigued by his selection of a still life from the Baroque Era. These still lifes contain very formal and sophisticated subject matter designed with symbolic elements aimed at emphasizing the transience of life, the futility of earthly pleasure, and the vain quest for power and glory— certainly not the topics a third grader gravitates toward in his free time. Yet, the symbols in the artwork were designed to convey a message that is clear, persuasive and powerful—with an ultimate purpose to instruct and inspire viewers to lead a virtuous life. From the student’s apparent fascination, he was certainly struck by the artwork’s power.
Once I convinced myself to interrupt the student’s trance, I learned, to my surprise and delight, that this artwork was his favorite in the whole school! As we discussed the work, he explained that this painting required a special observation method, which he had invented, to appreciate its beauty and understand its meaning. I was amazed by the student’s insightfulness and awareness.
This experience of awe and reverence for beauty found in art inspires me with hope for our students to begin to grasp and appreciate, even at a young age, what is good, true, and beautiful in their daily lives. This student’s appetite for beauty was necessarily guided by classical art lessons which teach students to observe, contemplate and practice beautiful things.
This encounter reminded me of the words of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn that I would like to leave you with today: “Art inflames even a frozen, darkened soul to a high spiritual experience. Through art we are sometimes visited—dimly, briefly—by revelations such as cannot be produced by rational thinking. Like that little looking-glass from the fairy tales: look into it and you will see—not yourself—but for one second, the Inaccessible, whither no man can ride, no man fly. And only the soul gives a groan…”
