Grades/Level: 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

Build student awareness of the relationship between words and images. Students will identify the main ideas in a passage from literature, and in a painting, and justify their conclusions using logic and language arts skills.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:
• identify the main ideas in a literary passage.
• identify the main ideas represented in a painting.
• discuss the similarities and differences between a written story and a story told with images.

Materials

• Excerpt from Ovid's Metamorphosis workseet
• Image of Rembrandt Hermensz. van Rijn's The Abduction of Europa

Activity Steps

1. Explain to your students that they will do an activity to help them think about the connections between words and images, between the written word and visual expression.

2. Click on the image of Rembrandt's painting of The Abduction of Europa in the Materials section above for information about the artist and the painting. The excerpt is taken from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses. In this work Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) draws from Greek mythology, Latin folklore, and legend to create a series of narrative poems linked by the common theme of transformation. Specifically, the passage tells the story of the abduction of Europa by the god Jupiter, known to the Greeks as Zeus.

3. Divide the students into groups. Give each group copies of the worksheet with the excerpt from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

4. Tell the groups that they will have 5 to 10 minutes to read the excerpt and identify the main ideas of the passage. Have the groups select someone to be the recorder. After they brainstorm, they should pick the three most important ideas in the passage.

5. Next, show your students the Rembrandt painting. Tell the groups that they will have 5 to 10 minutes to identify the main ideas the artist was trying to express based solely on what they see. Ask them again to brainstorm together and then identify their top three ideas.

6. Have a class discussion. Here are some questions you can ask your students:
• What were the similarities and differences between the excerpt and the painting?
• When they read the passage, did a picture of the story come to mind? How did their perspective change when they looked at the image? Did seeing the reproduction of Rembrandt's painting change their understanding of Ovid's story? Which moment in the story does the work of art illustrate?
• How is telling a story with words different from telling a story with images? Which do they prefer—a story told with words or with images?
• If they were to create a work of art based on the passage by Ovid, which moment would they choose to represent? Have they ever been inspired to write because of something they saw? Or have they ever created an artwork based on a story they read?
• Conclude by telling them that writers are often inspired by great works of art, and artists are inspired by great works of literature.