Grades/Level: Lower Elementary (K–2), Upper Elementary (3–5), Middle School (6–8), High School (9–12)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English–Language Arts
Time Required: Short Activity
20 minutes
Author: J. Paul Getty Museum Education Staff

Activity Overview

This is a follow-up activity to the Getty Center Guided Lessons Artists as Storytellers and Mythology in European Art. Students continue their exploration of how works of art can be inspired by stories by creating their own work of art inspired by a narrative text.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:
• interpret a literary passage in a visual sketch.
• point out the different ways that various students in the class interpreted the same passage visually.

Materials

• a passage from a work of literature your students are reading or have read in class
• paper and drawing materials

Activity Steps

1. Ask students to recall one work of art that they remember from their visit. Discuss other ways the artist could have shown the same subject or story. Talk about how there are many ways to visually interpret a story or idea.

2. Direct students to the passage you have selected (or write it on the board). Read the passage out loud and tell your students that they are going to make a work of art inspired by this passage. Before they begin drawing, ask each student to say one or two words that came to mind when they heard the passage. List them on the board. Discuss how the passage evoked different responses and how, like artists, they interpreted the same story in many ways.

3. Give students paper and drawing materials (or depending on the grade level and materials available, assign them the task of creating a collage). Ask students to sketch their ideas for a work of art based on the passage (or depending on the grade level and materials available, assign them the task of creating a collage). Ask students to sketch their ideas for a work of art based on the passage. Tell your students that a sketch is a quick practice drawing and that their work does not need to be completely finished.

4. Ask the students to share their sketches as a group. Discuss their drawings together. Are they the same or different? How? Why? Consider together how the same words inspired so many different interpretations and how we all have unique ways of imagining the same story.

Extensions

Continue to explore the ways artists interpret stories visually. The following are useful resources for developing lessons on this topic.

Books:
Acton, Mary. Learning to Look at Paintings. London: Routledge, 1997.

Baker, Sorelle, and Donna Rosenberg. Mythology and You: Classical Mythology and Its Relevance in Today's World. Contemporary Publishing Co, 1992.

Barber, Antonia. Apollo and Daphne: Masterpieces of Greek Mythology, with Paintings from Great Art Museums of the World. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 1998.

Calasso, Roberto. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.

D'Aulaire, Ingri. D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1962.

De Capoa, Chiara. Old Testament Figures in Art. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003.

Giorgi, Rosa. Saints in Art. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003.

Grant, Michael and John Hazel. Who's Who in Classical Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Hamilton, Edith. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. New York: Warner Books, 1999.

Homer. The Odyssey. Robert Fitzgerald (translator). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.

Low, Alice. Greek Gods and Heroes. New York: Maxwell Macmillan, 1994.

Lynton, Norbert, et al. Looking into Paintings. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1985.

Ovid. Metamorphoses (Oxford World's Classics). A. D. Melville (translator). New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Richardson, Joy. Looking at Pictures: An Introduction to Art for Young People. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.

Web sites
Artcylopedia

Art History Resources on the Web

ArtsEdge

Cleveland Museum of Art—Make a Mask of Medusa