1. Read the text and translate it into Ukrainian.
2. Answer the following questions:
1. When did new forms of art become popular in the Netherlands?
2. When did the Netherlands gain independence?
3. What sorts of painting did the Dutch bourgeois patrons prefer?
4. What did Dutch landscape painting deny?
5. What scenes did Dutch painters concentrate on?
6. Where did the term still life originate in?
7. Where did the Dutch invest huge sums of money in?
8. What did the Dutch prize in portraiture?
9. Who was the first Dutch artist to give his portraits a freshness, intimacy, and spontaneity?
10. What is depicted in Hals’s work “The group of children”?
3. Give Ukrainian equivalents of the following words and phrases:
emergent
still life
to gain independence
extensive colony
to spend wealth on arts
commodity
to strive to adorn
high-ranking
comparatively small
to inhabit
to deny all forms of pretension
to dispense
spectacular panorama
glowing sunset
to lavish
passionate about horticulture
to adore flower arrangements
to prize candour and vitality
intimacy and spontaneity
4. Give English equivalents of the following words and phrases:
відображати
бути враженим
спостерігати
докладати зусиль
власне мистецтво
точна форма
коштовні прикраси
панівна релігія
зручний
бути як можна ближчим до природи
архітектурні примхи
замість
невелика доля правди
відвертість та життєздатність
гідність та величність
досяжний
приваблювати
бути гордим
5. Make up the sentences of your own with the given words and phrases.
6. Match a line in A with a line in B.
A |
B |
to gain |
to give out or issue in portions |
amazed |
extremely large in size, amount or scope |
to strive |
to acquire, obtain, improve, increase |
austere |
filled with incredulity or surprise, astonished |
to dispense |
to make a great and tenacious effort |
to lavish |
to succeed in representing or describing |
huge |
physical or mental vigour, energy |
vitality |
a formal stately, or grave bearing |
dignity |
stern or severe in attitude or manner |
to capture |
to give, expand, apply abundantly, generously or in profusion |
7. Summarize the text in English. Unit 35 text
Using a camera obscura enables artists to represent reality as never before
The use of mechanical aids has always been a controversial issue in the art world. Jan Vermeer created paintings of exceptional, almost photographic, clarity. Did he use a device called a camera obscura?
Enormous speculation surrounded Jan Vermeer in his own lifetime, when his work was valued for its superb detail and clarity. He was secretive about his own techniques, however, and there is no hard evidence that he owned a device called a camera obscura, but the quality of his work certainly is in keeping with the use of the invention. Two hundred years later, after the invention of photographs, critics consistently commented on his work's photographic quality. In 1861, the Goncourt brothers described him as "the only master who has made a living daguerreotype."
Camera obscura, meaning a "dark chamber," refers to the discovery that, when a tiny hole is made in the wall of a darkened room, under certain lighting conditions an image of the scene outside will be formed, upside down, on the opposite wall. This basic principle had been known since antiquity by astronomers, who used it to observe the sun safely. In the sixteenth century, scientists experimented by placing a glass lens across the hole. The results were startling. The lens inverted the image so that it was right side up, and also brighter and sharper. The "camera" itself came in various shapes and sizes. Some, such as tents, booths, or shuttered rooms, genuinely resembled a chamber. The more practical, portable version of the instrument that was developed later came in a rectangular box, and the image was viewed from above.
A Dutch art lover who witnessed the device in action in 1622 said, "All painting is dead in comparison, for here is life itself, or something more elevated, if only there were words for it. Shape, contour, and movement come
17 The Lacemaker
Jan Vermeer, 1679
Dutch Seventeenth Century
together naturally, in a way that is altogether pleasing." It would be centuries before those fleeting images could be captured and preserved as a photograph. However, by using a mirror artists could project an image onto a canvas and trace their chosen scene or subject with incredible accuracy. Vermeer almost certainly did so.
Vermeer would have had access to the latest optical devices, as he knew Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the pioneer of the microscope. No preliminary drawings or sketches for many of Vermeer's finest paintings have been found, which is a surprise, given the complexity of his compositions. Some details in his paintings are amazingly sharp, while others have a blurred, soft-focus appearance, in keeping with viewing a subject through a lens. In The Lacemaker this contrast between soft focus and sharp details is noticeable in the threads hanging from the cushion. The way the shadow and light fall show an extraordinary level of observation. It seems that Vermeer was able to build up his pictures in light and tone, rather than relying solely on drawing. All evidence suggests the use of a camera obscura.
This does not undermine Vermeer's brilliance as an artist. For him the camera was far more than a copying device. It gave him a different view of the natural world and he used this to extraordinary effect. His skill is not only in his painting but his composition, his subject matter, and his delicate sensitivity to the everyday and the ordinary.
TASKS