Part I

• Give the proper English equivalents

1. средневековая жизнь

2. отражать историю

3. классическая цивилизация

4. ранний средневековый скульптор

5. сходство

6. языческий

7. Ветхий Завет

8. напоминать классического римского оратора

9. чувство физической красоты

10. быть характерным для классического искусства

11. сильно изменить

12. гордиться своим телом

13. темница души

14. святой

15. отвергать человеческое тело

16. религиозный символ

17. трехмерный

18. поклоняться кому-либо

19. признать христианство государственной религией

20. ранние христиане

21. церковная служба

22. алтарь

23. Византия

24. новое архитектурное решение

25. византийская архитектура

26. следовать классическому стилю

27. религиозная тема

28. вдохновение

29. утонченная византийская культура

• As you listen, pick out words and word combinations pertaining to the exterior and interior of Christian churches. Speak about the Byzantine-style church

• Questions to answer

1. What does the history of the Church and its art mirror?

2. How did the early Christians see Christ? Did their conception undergo a certain change during the Middle Ages? Why?

3. Why did the Christians reject the human body?

4. How did medieval artists portray the human figure?

5. When did Emperor Constantine accept Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire?

6. What is a Byzantine representation of Christ?

• Fill in the gaps. Use the above given words and word combinations. Translate the utterances into good Russian. Use the above given words and word combinations. Reproduce them in a look-up-and-say manner

1. The history of the Church and its art ______________the history of Western man during the Middle Ages.

2. Thus to understand the Middle Ages we must understand Christianity. To understand Christianity we ought to consider its very beginnings. Christianity grew out of the decaying soil of ___________________________________.

3. ____________ subject matter had simply been given new Christian meaning.

4. Look at the ___________________figure on the left; doesn’t it resemble the classical Roman orator on the right?

5. Now look at this later medieval Christ. Centuries of non-classical influences obscured the sense of ____________ - characteristic of classical artistic style.

6. Unlike the ancient Greeks, medieval man didn’t seem to be _____________.

7. For the Christians the body became merely __________________________.

8. The artists tried to ignore physical reality, so these _____________seemed to have virtually no bodies beneath their robes.

9. In the early, illegal days of Christianity, Christ was _____________in secret.

10. When Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire there were no Christian churches. Yet the early Christians needed to assemble to listen to ____________________________________.

11. Thus, early church architects modified the design of the Roman public assembly halls to suit the needs of their religion. Emperor Constantine brought to the East the artistic style of classical _______________________.

12. But as the worldly character of Christianity developed and as Eastern artistic styles exerted themselves, a new architectural solution to the needs of Christian worship was found. By the 6^th century, the exotic style of ______________had found its way back to Italy.

Tasks to the Pictures

Look at Picture 2.

In 537 AD the construction of the famous Hagia Sophia was completed in Constantinople. Originally a church, this vast building was later converted to a mosque. What was added to the Christian church to make it a Moslem mosque?

1. minarets

2. buttresses

3. arches

4. vaults