Vessels in Greek art: Museum visit

This lesson focuses on the uses, shapes, importance, and historical storytelling on Greek vessels in art.

A lesson plan for grades K–2 Visual Arts Education

By Katie O'Connor

Learn more

• Ackland Art Museum Find images of Greek vessels
• Metropolitan Museum of Art More vessels and a feature on Athenian vase painting

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Related topics

• Learn more about Greece, art history, arts, ceramics, fine art, museum education, pottery, and vessels.

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Learning outcomes

The students will observe and investigate the shape, the uses, and the importance of Greek vessels for holding contents and in storytelling. They will also compare the parts of a vessel to human body parts.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

45 minutes

Materials/resources

• A museum exhibit with several Greek vessels such as these from the Ackland Art Museum: kylix, lekythos, and a neck amphora
• pencils
• View of a Vessel worksheet

Pre-activities

The lesson Greek vessels in art: Museum pre-visit should be completed.

Activities

1. The museum educator will ask some initial questions, such as: “I understand you have been talking about containers and vessels in your classroom. Tell me some vessels that we use in our homes today. Why do you think vessels are important to us?”
2. Vessels were also important to the Greeks. The museum educator will show the children the neck amphora piece. The children will observe the piece and the museum educator will talk about its uses and its decorations. The decoration on the outside of the vessel is a story. Thus, one use of a vessel is that it tells a story. The museum educator will tell the children a story from one of the vessels.
3. Since the children have been sitting for a little while, now it is time to stand up and try a little bit of movement. The museum educator will have the children stand up and touch their mouths, and ask, “What part of the vessel could represent a mouth, sometimes called the lip?” Then, the educator would do the same for the following parts:
   • human neck and neck of the vessel
   • human torso and the middle of the vessel
   • human shoulders and the part of the vessel that flares out under the neck
   • human foot and the bottom of the vessel

   Some vessels are on pedestals, which can be considered the leg, and at times the handles of a vessel can be called the ears.

4. The museum educator will show the children examples of different shapes of vessels (e.g. vessels with a tall neck, a wide body, etc.). Suggested pieces include kylix, lekythos, and a neck amphora.
5. The museum educator will ask the children, “Is the shape of the vessel important? Why or why not?” The shape is important because the shape of the vessel helps the contents not spill out, stores the vessel upright, helps in pouring out the contents, and helps in controlling the amount that gets poured out.
6. Finally, students will be put into small groups of three and will be assigned a vessel to observe. Each group member will fill out the View of a Vessel sheet.
7. Have volunteers share what they have discovered about their vessels.

Assessment

The teacher should look for three of the four of the following components from each child on his/her View of a Vessel sheet:

• vessel description
• comparison of the vessel parts with body parts?
• ideas about what the vessel’s uses
• pattern illustration

And if there was time to do so, the teacher should check to see that the student created a picture of his/her own vessel.