Unit 7. Sister wendy`s story of painting

Introduction

Painting is an art, creation of great works and beautiful pictures. Many things and emotions could be represented or expressed through painting. Painting can be natural or can be representation. Old pictures concern up to long time ago…

This term we are lucky to deal with “Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting”, BBC series. Sister Wendy, the author of dozens of books on the subject of art, gives a studied and deeply personal overview of the history of art, with a particular focus on painting. She shares wonderful insights about the artists, their time and their work. She has no personal agenda; she just states what she knows, in context.

Part 1. "The Mists of Time"

Make sure you know these words:

tomb, monk, mourner, plague, binding, crucifixion, priest, the Middle Ages

Task 1

Ex.1.  Group the vocabulary below under the right heading. Some words can be put under two headings. What do the following words mean? What words can be referred to art vocabulary?

Nouns	Verbs	Adjectives

Surrealism, impressionism, masterpiece, tomb, fortune, gaze, provincial, unconvincing, entity, exceptional, breeze, circumstance, suspicious, dignity, icon, monk, escape, wind, plague, binding, embrace, precious, convince, miracle, crucifixion, manuscript, court, knighthood, peasant, survive, struggle, flicker, Christ, cross, poll-tax, coat, impassive, vulnerable, funeral, priest, mourner, flat, profile, temple, hunt, afterlife.

Ex.2.  Comprehension questions.

1.  What facts were mentioned concerning Prehistoric art?

2.  H ave you ever been to Egypt? What has impressed you most?

3.  What was the aim of Egyptian painting?

4.  What’s the difference between the Egyptian attitude to a human and the Greek one?

5.  What disaster left us the Roman painting “The Baker and his wife”?

6.  Name several features of Medieval painting.

7.  What was the origin of the Book of Kells?

8.  What are the Limbourg Brothers famous for?

Ex.3.  Choose the best variant.

1.  What trend does Prehistoric art remind of?

a)  impressionism

b)  realism

c)  avant-gardism

2.  What trend can Greek art be referred to?

a)  cubism

b)  impressionism

c)  realism

3.  The Book of Kells has some elements of…

a)  realism

b)  surrealism

c)  modernism

4.  The only Greek painting left is on vases, particularly the myth about…

a)  Venus and Mars

b)  Bacchus and Ariadne

c)  Achilles kills Penthesilea

Ex.4.  Mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F).

1.  Prehistoric images were not to be seen or even more so to be sightseeing. They were made secretly under the earth.

2.  The main idea of Egyptian art is a tense belief in the afterlife.

3.  If we want an art which takes the human body seriously, we have to wait for the rise of the Greek civilization.

4.  Like the Greek the Romans were interested in impressionism.

2.  The Middle Ages were actually dreadful and full of wars and diseases.

5.  Icon painting has changed a lot for thousand years.

6.  The Book of Kells is the greatest work of art that ever comes from the British Isles.

Ex.5.  How can you explain the following collocations and phrasal verbs? Make up your own sentences with them.

to drive the family car, to come together, to exchange looks, to fall in love with

E x.6.  You see “August” from “The very rich Hours of the Duke of Berry”. Try to find all the peculiarities mentioned in the film.

Ex.7.  Topics for discussion:

1.  Egyptian culture

2.  Greek and Roman art

3.  Vesuvius eruption and the destruction of Pompeii.

4.  Look for the known paintings on these subjects.

5.  Medieval art. Glory and darkness.

6.  Richard II, his political portrait.