IV Translate the paragraph in italics in a written form.
V Questions for discussion:
1. What does the term history of art refer to?
2. What was taken as the defining standard in the field of art history?
3. Where did the Renaissance begin?
4. Where did Renaissance thinkers learn from?
5. How did the Renaissance affect European intellectual life in the early modern period?
6. What was the Churchs attitude to the Renaissance art?
7. How did the artists develop art techniques?
8. What gave people access to books?
VI Render the text in brief in a written form
Text C
I Mind the following words and word-combinations:
1. inventor
2. archetype
3. infinite
4. curiosity
5. to equal
6. diversely
7. renowned
8. primarily
9. vastly
10. to conceptualise
11. solar
12. tensile strength
II Listen to the text. Decide if the statements are true or false:
1. Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian a scientist, engineer, anatomist, painter, sculptor, botanist, musician and writer.
2. He is perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.
3. Leonardo is renowned primarily as a musician.
4. As an engineer, Leonardo conceptualised a plane.
5. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy and hydrodynamics.
III Listen to the text again and be ready to answer the questions:
1. What is the most famous portrait by Leonardo da Vinci?
2. How is Leonardo da Vinci often described?
Unit 2
The history of arts
Text A
I Listen and remember the following words:
1. to survive
2. vague ,
3. haziness
4. sublimity
5. untamed
6. to wane
7. exponent ,
8. sought (p.p. to seek) ,
9. coherent ,
10. quest
11. realm
12. obscure ,
II Read and remember the following phrases:
1. enlightenment period
2. in confronting
3. profound influence
4. prevailing academic tradition
5. to shift away
III Read and translate the following text:
The history of arts. Brief overview
Part II
Neoclassicism and Romanticism
In the visual arts the European movement called "neoclassicism" began after 1765, as a reaction against both the surviving Baroque and Rococo styles, and as a desire to return to "purity" of the arts of Rome, the more vague perception ("ideal") of Ancient Greek arts (where almost no western artist had actually been) and, to a lesser extent, 16th century Renaissance Classicism.
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Contrasting with the Baroque and the Rococo, Neoclassical paintings are devoid of pastel colours and haziness; instead, they have sharp colours.
Romanticism is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in 18th century Western Europe, around 1790, during the Industrial Revolution. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature in art and literature. It stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature. It elevated folk art, nature and custom, as well as arguing for an epistemology based on nature, which included human activity conditioned by nature in the form of language, custom and usage.
The Birth of Realism
As the Romantic movement waned, exponents of the visual arts sought to depict the world in a more literal way. Focus shifted away from idealism to a more realistic rendering of nature, social relationships, and the characteristics of the individual, society, and the nation at large. This new realism assumed various forms in the different countries where it took root.
Realism was a historical movement that had a profound influence on the literature and figurative arts of Europe. The most systematic and coherent form evolved in France during the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. It reached its peak during the Second Empire (1852-70) and began to wane in the 1870s.
Modern Art
The beginnings of modern painting started in 19th-century France. The paintings of Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, and the Impressionists represent a deepening rejection of the prevailing academic tradition and a quest for a more naturalistic representation of the visual world. From about the 1890s on, different movements and styles arose, such as Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Metaphysical painting, De Stijl, Dada, Surrealism, Social Realism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Op art, Minimal art, and Neo-Expressionism. Despite the enormous variety seen in these movements, most of them are characteristically modern in expressing a spiritual response to the changed conditions of life in the 20th century.
An important trend throughout the 20th century has been the abstract, or non-objective, art i.e., art in which little or no attempt is made to objectively reproduce or depict the appearances or forms of objects in the realm of nature or the existing physical world. It should also be noted that the development of photography and of allied photomechanical techniques of reproduction has had an obscure but certainly important influence on the development of modern art, because these mechanical techniques freed (or deprived) manually executed drawing and painting of their crucial role as the only means of accurately depicting the visible world.
IV Answer the questions:
1. When did the European movement in the visual arts called "neoclassicism" begin?
2. What is the difference between the Baroque and Neo-classical paintings?
3. What movement elevated folk art?
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4. What are the main features of Realism?
5. When did Realism reach its peak?
6. When did the modern art start?
7. What did the Impressionists represent in their works?
8. What was an important trend in modern art throughout the 20th century?
V Complete the sentences with the words from the text:
1. Neoclassicism began as a reaction against both the surviving styles.
2. Neoclassical paintings are devoid of pastel colours and haziness; instead, they have colours.
3. reached its peak during the Second Empire (1852-70) and began to wane in the 1870s.
4. The beginnings of modern painting started in...
5. is an art in which little or no attempt is made to objectively reproduce or depict the appearances or forms of objects.
VI Find the English equivalents to the words:
, , , , , , ,
VII Make up sentences with the terms:
purity, instead, emphasis, attempt, to reproduce, horror, existing, to take root
VIII Give definitions to the words:
desire, perception, to originate, to deprive, allied, trepidation, devoid
IX Translate sentences into English:
1. .
2. , , .
3. , .
4. , .
5. 19 .
X Speak on the topic using the following words and word-combinations:
devoid of pastel colours and haziness, artistic, literary, intellectual movement, folk art, nature and custom, realistic rendering of nature, profound influence, naturalistic representation, non-objective
Text B
I Read and remember:
1. triumphant appearance
2. haute couture
3. profit
4. hourglass
5. waist
6. voluptuously
7. inset gigot sleeves
8. sumptuously
9. whalebone
10. embroidery
II Read the text and define the main idea of it:
The Fashion 1900-1909
French haute couture made its first triumphant appearance at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. At that time designers, of course, still known as couturiers and they saw themselves as guardians of the high art of tailoring and dressmaking.
Strangely enough, it is an Englishman who is regarded as the founder of French haute couture. Charles Frederick Worth came to Paris at the age of 20. Thirteen years later, in 1858, he founded his own couture house in the Rue de la Paix with his Swedish partner Boberg.
He presented a new collection every year, and this introduced into fashion the constant factor of change, a pioneering innovation which promoted sales and from which all designers still profit to this day.
The line of fashion which Worth developed was much less revolutionary than his marketing.
Worth had simply made the crinoline, which had become increasingly extensive, somewhat more moderate by flattening the skirt at the front as well as gathering the fullness of the material at the back. They were very much of the opinion that the female body should be both laced up and padded, in order to approach the ideal of the hourglass - delicately fragile at the waist, spreading out voluptuously above and below. In profile the line followed the shape of an S, more or less sharply curved according to the corset and bustle.
High, narrow stand-up collars, preferably of firm lace, demanded the head to be held upright, especially since a sumptuously decorated hat was balanced on top. Heavy ostrich feathers were especially favoured, since they were the most expensive and were an important status symbol. Narrowly cut tops, worn over whalebone corsets that were themselves hidden by "cache-corsets," had inset gigot sleeves in the shape of a leg of mutton. They were wide and puffed at the shoulder, and narrowed from the elbow to the hand. The sleeves ended only at the fingers, since proper ladies kept themselves covered as much as possible, preferably from head to toe. The skirt was full-length, loose at the hips, flared toward the hem in a bell shape, gathered and pleated toward the back, and often ending in a slight train.
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Materials such as linen, velvet, and wool were used for daywear. Popular colours were subdued dark or pale pastel shades, such as pink, blue, or mauve. Lavish ornaments were used in an attempt to make up for a lack of imagination in the cut itself; braids and ribbons, tucks and bows, appliques and flounces were all used as decoration.
In the evening it had to be silk and lace, muslin, tulle, chiffon, satin, and crêpe de Chine, richly embroidered and decorated, and often cut with a very low neckline. Pearls were the jewelry of the decade, worn as droplet earrings, loosely around the neck in a single long string, or tightly in several rows as a choker.
This was how the femme ornée of the belle époque was dressed. But the femme libérée was already waiting in the wings. Many people helped to liberate her, yet no one was better than Paul Poiret.
