1. Read the text and translate it into Ukrainian.
2. Answer the following questions:
1. Where were artworks of the highest order produced during the Bronze Age?
2. What did Bronze Age craftsmen create?
3. What was the name of the first major Chinese dynasty?
4. What do the elaborate ritual ceremonies reflect?
5. What were the shapes of many of the ritual vessels based on?
6. What does “ding” refer to?
7. What was Chinese craftsmen preferred technique?
8. What did the piece-mold technique allow craftsmen?
9. What are the decorations on Shang bronze-ware based on?
10. What do many of the Shang vessel feature?
3. Give Ukrainian equivalents of the following words and phrases:
to generate metal tools
ancient people
major breakthrough
to inspire
to come to power
to contain offerings
to watch over the fortunes of descendants
to reflect the power
cauldron
at a later stage
to develop a distinctive bronze alloy
piece- mold casting
time-consuming
to enable
intricate design
complex and mysterious
dedicatory inscriptions
invaluable information
4. Give English equivalents of the following words and phrases:
удосконалити
головний прорив
розвиток людства
створювати лиття
детальні візерунки
приходити до влади
жертовне підношення
спостерігати за долею нащадків
формувати структуровану громаду
мати потребу в висококваліфікованих майстрах
розвивати відмінний бронзовий сплав
давати можливість досягнути ступінь гостроти
бути характерною рисою
на додаток до
забезпечувати безцінною інформацією
5. Make up sentences of your own with the given words and phrases.
6. Match a line in A with a line in B.
A |
B |
to perfect |
to provide with or bequeath a source of permanent income |
breakthrough |
any object used as a container |
vessel |
a significant development or discovery |
to worship |
to have all essential elements |
elaborate |
job involving the maximum use of time or other resources |
labour-intensive |
having great value that is impossible to calculate |
to endow |
to cut or chip in order to form something |
to carve |
to make up, form, compose something |
invaluable |
planned or executed with care and exactness |
to constitute |
to show profound religious devotion and respect to |
7. Summarize the text in English. Unit 21 text
In Ancient Greece artists create ideal human figures
The Greek quest to define the ideal proportions of the human body formed the basis of the classical tradition and changed the course of Western art.
Ancient Greece entered a golden age in the fifth century bce. In order to win a lengthy war against the Persians, the Greek states formed an alliance for the first time. This resulted not only in the defeat of their enemies but also in a period of national self-confidence. Athens became the dominant city-state. Democracy was born in this era and the arts flourished. The outstanding intellectuals remain cultural icons to this day: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the dramatists; Plato and Socrates, the philosophers; and Herodotus and Thucydides, the historians. This was also the classical period of Greek art and the exceptional work of Greek artists set the standard by which fine art and architecture has been measured in the West ever since. The Greek statue was perhaps the pinnacle of their achievement.
The kouros, nude male figure, and the kore, draped female figure, were already established in Greek sculpture and often used as grave markers. Though beautifully crafted, the poses were rigid and symmetrical. Sculptors of the classical era dramatically improved on these figures and altered forever the way the human form was treated in art. They understood anatomy and how the human body moved, so could make their figures fluid and natural. Yet they wanted to achieve more than mere naturalism. The search for an ideal human form was linked to important philosophical debates in this period. Artists were inspired to analyze and define the nature of ideal beauty, using the human figure as their template.
The high level of intellectual inquiry through philosophy, science, and mathematics affected all areas of the arts in Greece. Major artists such as the influential sculptor Polyclitus of Argos, who was active in the mid-fifth century BCE, contributed as well as reacted to the debates. He wrote a defining treatise
3 Poseidon, Apollo. And Artemis,
Fragment of Relief from The Parthenon
Phidias and unknown artists, c.438-432 BCE
Ancient Greek
on proportion and harmony, The Canon, in which he stresses the importance of using a system of mathematical proportions (symmetria). He is reported to have said "beauty does not consist in the elements but in the symmetry of the parts, the proportion of one finger to another, of all the fingers to the hand…" His statue of the Doryphorus (Spear Carrier) is a perfect example of the classical proportions he defined.
Polyclitus chose an athlete to demonstrate his ideal body. The Greeks highly valued physical and sporting prowess and athletes competed to achieve the ultimate human physique. Sporting events were staged as part of religious festivals, and statues of victorious sportsmen were frequently sited in temple precincts, dedicated to the gods. The most celebrated games were the Olympics, which were held in honour of Zeus, but similar events took place in all the major cities. The frieze on the Parthenon, produced under the supervision of Phidias, depicts a scene from the Panathenaea, the festival devoted to the goddess Athena. This section features Poseidon, Apollo, and Artemis, who are among the deities watching the procession, which includes the popular spectacle of athletes leaping on and off a moving chariot. The figures combine vitality with an air of serene majesty, and they conform to the ideal the Greeks had established for the human form.
TASKS