1. Read the text and translate it into Ukrainian.
2. Answer the following questions:
1. When did Chinese artists perfect a new form of landscape?
2. What was the term for landscape composed of in Chinese art in the tenth century?
3. What was landscape considered to be in Chinese art in the tenth century?
4. What was not Chinese landscape art intended to record?
5. What were the paintings designed for?
6. Why did landscape painters avoid bright colours?
7. What encouraged the eye to move around the composition?
8. How were Chinese landscapes painted?
9. What art forms were closely related in China?
10. How did the painters themselves earn their living?
3. Give Ukrainian equivalents of the following words and phrases:
spiritual inspiration
to transcend a straightforward copy
to signify
to charge with
contemplation
to enrich
to avoid bright colours
in seeking to
to create multiple viewpoints
to explore individual highlights
to wander
unrolling process
to carry out
to cover up
higher ranks of society
apart from
to be closely related
certain type
frequently
to respect
to be created as gifts
to appreciate value
4. Give English equivalents of the following words and phrases:
глибока асоціація
складатися
ціль
міркування
відкривати сутність
вважати
досліджувати поверхню речей
уникати
вибирати
заохочувати
подібний до
супроводжувати
якість
заробляти на життя
поважати
високо цінувати
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 transcend |
to increase the wealth of |
profound |
recurring at short intervals |
to signify |
to go above or beyond as in degree or excellence |
contemplation |
words carved or engraved on a coin etc. |
to enrich |
to indicate, show or suggest |
to deem |
to inspire someone with the courage or confidence to do something |
to encourage |
to obtain by payment |
inscription |
thoughtful or long consideration or observation |
frequently |
penetrating deeply into subjects or ideas |
to purchase |
to judge or consider |
7. Summarize the text in English. Unit 29 text
Italian artists develop and master the use of the rules of perspective
The ability to give works of art an illusion of perspective enables artists to show the world as it appears. When systems for understanding perspective were devised in the early fifteenth century, they paved the way for the immense artistic achievements of the Renaissance.
When we talk about "getting things into perspective" we mean seeing issues in proportion and understanding how one thing relates to another. The same is true in art. A vast mountain is diminished in stature if it is in the distance while a small child can dominate a composition if placed at the front. Using laws of perspective means that the world can be depicted as spacious and with figures, structures, plants, and objects that fit realistically into their setting. There is a sense of depth, and landscapes stretch away to the horizon.
Great artists in the ancient world followed rules of proportion but they rarely took on large scenes with distant landscapes. Throughout the middle ages, Christian art was dominant in the West and artists were focussed on the symbolic meanings of their work rather than on depicting reality. As the subjects of art became broader and religious constraints less rigid, artists became more interested in showing the world as it actually appears. It was not until the fifteenth century, however, that the "laws" of perspective were codified for artists to follow. As soon as they were devised, artists began to use them and Western art was transformed.
The invention of a reliable system of perspective is credited to the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi. He demonstrated his ideas in two celebrated pictures of local buildings. Brunelleschi's theories were adapted for painters by another architect, Leon Battista Alberti, in his famous treatise On Painting (1435). Alberti translated space into a graph in which a series of diagonal lines converged on a single point called the vanishing point. These diagonals were combined with parallel horizontal lines to create a geometric
11 Feast of Herod
Donatello, 1423-1427
Early Renaissance
graph with which artists could estimate the correct size and position of objects within their pictures.
One of the first artists to use the new system was the Florentine sculptor Donatello. In his Feast of Herod it is clear that the artist is fascinated with the new techniques. Herod receives the head of John the Baptist on a platter, while Salome dances on the right, but this is not the usual Biblical scene of this period. The table slopes forward and Herod's outstretched hands push out dramatically from the scene. Strong architectural features are used to show the room diminishing into the distance. This is further emphasized by the heads of the musicians in the adjoining chamber becoming smaller the further away they are placed, as well as by the converging lines of the stone slabs on the floor.
The tightly knit artistic circle in Florence soon ensured that the principles of perspective were eagerly taken up. Artists regarded them as if a magic formula. In a letter, German artist Albrecht Diirer described how he travelled to Bologna to learn "the secret art of perspective." Once they had acquired this crucial technique, Renaissance painters were able to use their new vision of the world.
TASKS