9. Describe the main features of the Renaissance paintings and sculpture.

The Renaissance was a vibrant cultural movement that occurred across Europe roughly between 1300 and 1600. It originated in Italy and turned cultural focus away from the strict values of the Medieval period to a reworking of the classical Greek and Roman virtues of education, science, realism and glorification. Key characteristics of Renaissance art include realistic linear perspective, emphasis on the relationship between light and shadow, and a glorification of nature and the human figure. Key Artists Artists who defined the characteristics of Renaissance art include Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Sandro Botticelli. Sculpture Sculpture during the Renaissance sought to display physical realism and accurate perspective, while using an aesthetic style similar to Roman sculpture. Renaissance art is the painting, sculpture and decorative arts of that period of European history known as the Renaissance, emerging as a distinct style in Italy in about 1400, in parallel with developments which occurred in philosophy, literature, music and science. Renaissance art, perceived as a "rebirth" of ancient traditions, took as its foundation the art of Classical antiquity, but transformed that tradition by the absorption of recent developments in the art of Northern Europe and by application of contemporary scientific knowledge. Renaissance art, with Renaissance Humanist philosophy, spread throughout Europe, affecting both artists and their patrons with the development of new techniques and new artistic sensibilities. Renaissance art marks the transition of Europe from the medieval period to the Early modern age. In many parts of Europe, Early Renaissance art was created in parallel with Late Medieval art. By 1500 the Renaissance style prevailed. As Late Renaissance art (Mannerism) developed, it took on different and distinctive characteristics in every region.

10. Speak about the ideas of Humanism literature, dwell upon Shakespeare in particular. Give the main facts about the appearance and development of the English theatre. Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists.^[1] It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Medieval scholastic education, emphasizing practical, pre-professional and -scientific studies. Scholasticism focused on preparing men to be doctors, lawyers or professional theologians, and was taught from approved textbooks in logic, natural philosophy, medicine, law and theology.^[2] The main centers of humanism were Florence and Naples.^[3]Rather than train professionals in jargon and strict practice, humanists sought to create a citizenry (sometimes including women) able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity. Thus, they would be capable of better engaging the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions. This was to be accomplished through the study of the studio humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy Renaissance humanists believed that if you want to build a just society you must begin with the facts of human nature. This book argues that the idea of a universal human nature was as important to Shakespeare as it was to every other Renaissance writer. In doing so it questions the central principle of post-modern Shakespeare criticism. Postmodernists insist that the notion of defining a human essence was alien to Shakespeare and his contemporaries; as radical anti-essentialists, the Elizabethans were, in effect, postmodernists before their time. In challenging this claim Shakespeare's Humanism shows that for Shakespeare, as for every other humanist writer in this period, the key to all wise action was 'the knowledge of ourselves and our human condition'.

11. Describe the main features of the Baroque architecture in general and the peculiar features of the style in England in particular. Mention the main architects. Long, narrow naves are replaced by broader, occasionally circular forms

Dramatic use of light, either strong light-and-shade contrasts, chiaroscuro effects (e.g. church of Weltenburg Abbey)

Uniform lighting by means of several windows (e.g. church of Weingarten Abbey)

Opulent use of ornaments –puttos made of wood (often gilded), plaster or stucco, marble or faux finishing

Large-scale ceiling frescoes •the external façade is often characterized by a dramatic central projection

The origin of the term 'baroque" is uncertain, though it may have evolved from the Portugese 'barocco', meaning a grotesque or deformed pearl. The term was originally applied derisively, much as the term "Gothic" was initially one of contempt.What characterises Baroque as an architectural style? Baroque utilizes bold masses of curved shapes, strong lines, and rich colours. Above all, Baroque is sensual; decorative elements appeal almost viscerally to the senses in a way no other style can match. Yet that appeal is theatrical, intensely three-dimensional, almost grotesque in its lavish use of curves and embellishment.Little attention is paid to proportion, indeed it could be said that the only proportion observed is one of overwhelming the viewer with exaggeration.Baroque architecture, though extremely popular on the European continent, had only a brief flowering in England. Perhaps this was due to an inbred inclination towards understatement by the English, or to isolation from continental ideals.Whatever the cause, Baroque did not enjoy a long run in popular imagination in England, with a life spanning only a few decades from 1690-1730. Yet in that time the new style produced several of England's most important architectural treasures, notably Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace.Both buildings are the work of Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726). Vanbrugh's designs are striking in their use of mass; his work does not rely on the embellishment or decorative touches so common in continental Baroque, but on size and scope to overawe the viewer.The other chief practitioner of the Baroque style in England was Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736) who worked with Vanbrugh for a time before making his own name as an architect, first on a succession of London churches and later on Westminster Abbey, where he was respoinsible for the western towers. The best surviving work by Hawksmoor is at All Soul's College, the Clarendon Building, and Queen's College, Oxford.The Baroque movement produced architecture which employed classical elements in a willy-nilly free-for-all profusion. But by the third decade of the 18th century the opulent cascades of ornamental elements of Baroque gave way to the careful - and in some cases rigid - sense of proportion of the Georgian classical period.