Recently, I was looking at the Prado Museum website researching links for my year of art appreciation post. I found a little thumbnail sketch of the painting, and I thought it was so cool. I was smitten by it and needed to know what it was right away. I clicked on the image and nothing happened. WHAT?! So I then started clicking around on the Prado Museum website, but I couldn’t find it. This picture is like nothing I have ever seen before, so I didn’t even know where to start looking on the site.
Here is the thumbnail. Isn’t it so intriguing? Doesn’t it just make you want to know more?
I ended up having to use the snipping tool to pull the picture from the site. Then, I did a reverse Google image search for the picture. That’s when I discovered that this was The Straw Manikin by Francisco Goya. The final painting didn’t look like what I expected but that was what was so fun about the process.
Francisco Goya, The Straw Manikin, 1791-92
Delightful.
That little puzzle piece made my brain go so many places, and it made me think of lots of different art appreciation game s I could do with students with small clips of paintings like that. I could show a small bit of the painting and then have to student guess what the rest of the painting looks like or give the student a small portion of the painting and have them draw what the rest might look like. This activity is not new to the world, but it was fun to experience it out in the wild for myself.
I used to work at a history museum in downtown Dallas, and we would do something similar with historic photographs. We photocopied them and cut them into pieces and distributed the different quadrants to different groups of students. The students had to figure out clues from the photos. It taught them to look closely and notice things they might not have seen had they been given the full photograph originally.
I decided to make you a printable of this painting and others that work with the activity.
Art Appreciation Game Instructions and Printable
You print it and give it to the student, and ask them to draw the scene around it, or just discuss what they notice and what they predict for the rest of the painting. After they complete the art appreciation game, show the full painting and discuss.
I used these paintings for this activity in the printable.
- Francisco Goya, The Straw Manikin, 1791-92
- Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, c. 1658
- Vincent van Gogh, Bedroom in Arles, 1888
- Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, 1489-90
- Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Gojō Bridge, an Episode from the Life of Yoshitsune, 1881
- Unknown, Rahula,16th century
Download the art appreciation game printable.
If you liked this art appreciation activity, check out these:
Liz says
January 10, 2015 at 9:30 pmI think this is a great idea but a NUDE as one of the pictures! I think you are going to offend a LOT of homeschoolers with this post. Yes nudes are part of art but I certainly don’t want to be showing this to my very impressionable son.
Once again. thank you and I will use the rest of the pictures, just not that one.
Liz
Cindy, The Art Curator for Kids says
January 10, 2015 at 9:32 pmYes, it is a part of art. I’ll let the parents make that decision for their families. 🙂
Krystal r McFalls says
November 4, 2018 at 10:28 amJust found this site! This homeschool mama is not offended by nudes in art nor are my kiddos. Keep up the amazing work!
Ellen Manucy Kilpatrick says
January 25, 2015 at 1:25 pmI love this lesson. It makes the students think and become curious about the rest of the artwork. Thanks so much for all you do.
Cindy, The Art Curator for Kids says
January 25, 2015 at 10:04 pmThank you! And you’re welcome! 🙂 I agree. I also think it gives them a little bit of ownership and connection to it, so they feel like in some way, it is theirs.
Cindy, The Art Curator for Kids says
February 6, 2015 at 10:16 amThanks! 🙂 If you like it, you might try getting the 8 art appreciation worksheets free for subscribers if you haven’t already (or there is a 20 pack for $5). Those have activities that work with almost any work of art similar to the activity in this post from writing poems about art to writing tweets by characters in the painting. I hope to write more and more of these. I have a ton of activities I have used in my classrooms.
Lee says
May 6, 2015 at 6:56 amThis worked so well with my grade 1 class as an extension to their storytelling unit! Thank you 🙂
Lee says
May 6, 2015 at 6:57 am… we all had a little giggle when one student “got it right, Miss! she also drew a naked person!” 🙂
Cindy, The Art Curator for Kids says
May 6, 2015 at 9:15 amlol, that’s hilarious
Cindy, The Art Curator for Kids says
May 6, 2015 at 9:14 amAwesome! Thanks for letting me know. I love hearing the real-life stories of my resources in action. 🙂
tamerina1977 says
February 1, 2016 at 9:01 amI teach public school Art grades K-12. Your website is an awesome resource.
Cindy, The Art Curator for Kids says
February 2, 2016 at 3:21 pmThank you! 🙂
Amy Gavin says
January 11, 2019 at 4:17 pmI just did this activity this morning with Saint George and the Dragon by Peter Paul Rubens for my 6th graders. It worked so well—I will definitely use this technique again! (P.s. it was also my first day using the cinquain poem sheet: ACC for the win).
Madalyn Gregory says
January 14, 2019 at 3:46 pmThat’s wonderful!