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Nature as Code

creating identity using nature symbolism

About this learning resource

Format: PDF

Portrait artists of the Tudor era used nature symbolism as a form of coded language between sitter and viewer to promote a specific public image.

This lesson pack examines the difference between public image and private identity. Students decode public image in Tudor-era portraits. They will then explore, through self-portraiture incorporating nature symbols, their personal sense of self and how that supports self esteem.

National Curriculum links

  • Use drawing, painting and sculpture to share ideas and imagination
  • Identify what we are good at, what we like and dislike
  • Recognise the ways in which we are the same and different to others

Learning Objectives

  • Understand what a portrait and a self-portrait are
  • Understand how nature symbols have been used by Tudor artists to convey public and private messages about the sitters
  • Explore identity and how this can be represented through artwork

Resource Information

Key Stage

  • SEND

Subjects

  • Art & Design
  • History of Art
  • PSHE

Topic

  • Tudors

Type

  • Lesson ideas

Palace

  • Tower of London
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Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned at the Tower of London for 13 years. Under constant threat of execution, Raleigh struggled with poor mental health. Learn about Sir Walter Raleigh through the story of his imprisonment in the Tower of London and his medicinal garden.

Key Stage

  • KS2 (age 7-11)
  • KS3 (age 11-14)
  • KS4 (age 15-16)
  • KS5 (age 16+)
  • SEND
  • Home Educators

Subject

  • History
  • PSHE

Topic

  • Stuarts
  • Elizabethans
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Discover the life of John Blanke using historical sources as evidence.

Key Stage

  • KS1 (age 5-7)

Subject

  • English
  • History

Topic

  • Elizabethans
  • Tudors
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Self-guided historical enquiry designed to support GCSE students studying the Normans, in particular the AQA historic environment of Norman England.

Key Stage

  • KS4 (age 15-16)
  • KS5 (age 16+)

Subject

  • History

Topic

  • Normans