Using their knowledge of Virgil's The Aeneid, Tim Kent, Hon.'s Honors Latin 4 class recently helped the Frick Museum match unearthed 17th century illustrations by Flemish artist Sebastiaen Vrancx to the corresponding passages from the Homeric epic.
Before EA's campus was closed earlier this year, Latin teacher Tim Kent had arranged a field trip for his Honors Latin 3 class to visit with his sister-in-law, Dr. Louisa Ruby, who is the head of research at the Frick Museum's Art Reference Library in New York City. Unable to visit the Frick Museum in person, the class met with Dr. Ruby via Google Hangout.
Dr. Ruby had recently curated a virtual exhibit of the drawings of Sebastiaen Vrancx, a Flemish scholar and artist, who was inspired to translate and illustrate his own Dutch version of Vergil's The Aeneid after a trip to Rome in the 17th century. Dr. Ruby shared her work researching and authenticating Vrancx's 67 pen and ink drawings with the class. As the authority on Vrancx's work, she has been tasked with the detective work of matching the majority of the illustrations that do not appear with corresponding text, which is all but seven pages.
After meeting Mr. Kent's class, Dr. Ruby was so impressed by the enthusiasm and insight that the students offered about the illustrations that she asked for their assistance. "She invited our class to examine these four drawings to see if our students could figure out what scene in The Aeneid they depicted," Mr. Kent said, "If we managed to do so correctly, she said she would then update the online exhibition accordingly."
The class was excited to be given this opportunity to collaborate on scholarly research with recently-unearthed primary sources. They examined and re-examined the drawings looking for clues, eliminating sections that had already been identified, and scoured their well-worn copy of the Robert Fagles translation of The Aeneid to see if they could find a match.
"We mostly relied on contextual clues, such as the figures or settings in the piece, as well as some more subtle ones, like what a character is holding or what emotion the stance of the figures translates to," shared Bo Aldridge '20. "The scenes that were the hardest to figure out were those with features that could be applied to numerous scenes, such as a battle scene."
"What made it fun was that everyone had a role to play, because the only way to decipher these paintings was to work as a team, draw on our collective knowledge, and bounce ideas off of one and other until we discovered the right answer," shared Dhilan Lavu '21.
It took a week of intense efforts, but, working in pairs, the students were able to match three out of the four illustrations to a scene with high confidence. "The fourth was proving more difficult to pinpoint an exact scene," Mr. Kent said. Dr. Ruby had warned the class earlier that Vrancx would occasionally blend different elements of the story into a single scene. The class suspected that this was the case for the final illustration.
Once the class had put forth their best suggestions, Mr. Kent shared their work with Dr. Lee Pearcey and Dr. Greta Ham, former EA Classics department chairs, for their input, before passing their completed research on to Dr. Ruby.
The students' report to Dr. Ruby included a brief description of the scene (such as one you might find in a museum under a work of art), an explanation of what specific elements they used to make the identification, a description of what is happening in that scene, and finally, the original text and the translated text that might have been meant to accompany the depiction.
In this illustration, for example, the class determined that the piece would accompany a scene in which Aeneas' former fleet of boats, now sea nymphs, help speed their former master quickly down the Tiber to save his besieged fort. One of the clues, they explain, is the nymph, who might be Cymodocea, as she swims in the boat's wake. This scene was the easiest for the class to identify, said Dhilan, because it is the only time Homer mentions sea nymphs in the whole epic.
"Most of the time in school, in whatever subject you're in, you're learning things which a lot of other people already know," said Dhilan. "So to be able to actually apply your own knowledge to discover something brand new is very fulfilling."
"I really enjoyed the project because it was a nice break from the translating we usually do," said Bo. The opportunity to work on an interdisciplinary project gave students a chance to flex their critical thinking skills. "I am also taking AP Art History. It was a fun challenge to apply the skills I learned in another class to the project in Latin class," Bo went on."I also want to say thank you to my teacher, Mr. Kent, who is retiring after 37 years at EA as a teacher and a coach," said Dhilan. "Mr. Kent brings Latin to life with his unmatched energy. He is so incredibly passionate about helping his students navigate not just Latin, but life in general. I know that all of his students will miss him dearly."
You can read about our more about our beloved retiring faculty here, and read more about the Frick's collection of Vrancx's work and see the full online collection of illustrations here.