II. Match the terms (a) and their definitions (b).
A. order; cathedral; the Renaissance style; cella; arcade
B.
the rebirth of classical art and learning;
an arcaded gallery;
a system of traditional architectural units;
enclosed interior sanctuary;
a monumental church
III. Work in pairs. Ask your partner to tell you about the sources of the Renaissance's origin, the differences between the Renaissance and the Gothic, the works of Filippo Brunelleschl, the largest church in the Christian world.
Use the following phrases:
Could you please tell me about ...
Can I ask you a question concerning ...
With great pleasure.
Certainly.
I see, thank you.
IV.Answer the following questions.
1. When and where did the Renaissance begin?
2. What were the sources of knowledge of the classical style in architecture?
3. What was the basic element of the architectural design for the Renaissance?
4. Who was the first to elaborate and to show the Renaissance system of perspective?
5. What was the first building in the Renaissance manner?
6. What is the largest church in the Christian world?
7. What can you say about the outstanding Renaissance architects and their works?
V. Paraphrase the following statements using the information from the text.
1. The early Renaissance is characterized by active use of the Corinthian order.
2. The Doric was the favourite order of the Italian High Renaissance.
3. Brunelleschi is supposed to be the initiator of the Renaissance.
4. The building of St. Peter's was begun in 1506.
5. The Assumption Cathedral Was erected by Aristotile Fioravante.
VI. Give the English equivalents.
декоративные свойства коринфского ордера;
мужественная простота дорического ордера;
эпоха Возрождения;
пропорции человеческого тела и их связь с архитектурными пропорциями;
первое здание в стиле Ренессанса;
равномерно распределены над каждой из арок;
был заложен фундамент;
Успенский собор;
характерные черты;
строительные методы;
русские ремесленники
VII. With your partner, make up a dialogue using the information from the text 1 and your own knowledge on the subject.
VIII. Read the text and speak on a typical example of the Renaissance style in England.
The
Renaissance style of architecture made a very timid appearance in
England during the first half of the 16
century, and it was only from about 1550 that it became a positive
style with local qualities. In fact, the Gothic style continued in
many parts of England throughout most of the 16
century, and English Renaissance architecture was a very
original fusion of the Tudor Gothic and classical styles.
The
Renaissance style really begins in England in the middle of the 16
century in architecture built for the circle of the Lord Protector
Somerset.
A typical example of the Renaissance style of England is to be found in the quadrangle that John Caius added to Gonville Hall at Cambridge.
The architecture of the new court was basically Tudor Gothic, but Caius planned three gateways in connection with the court, two of which were in Italian style. The three gates were to mark the progress of the student hrough the university. At the entrance was the Gate of Humility (1565), a modest doorway, now in the Master's garden. The Gate of Virtue (after 1565), opening into the new quadrangle, is a fine classical portal with Ionic pilasters, but with a Tudor Gothic many-centred arch for the opening. Finally, the Gate of Honour (1573) is a separate tiny triumphal arch leading out toward the schools for the final disputation and degree.
Text B. Read the text and say about the early forms of arches and the later development.
ARCHES
Throughout most of architectural history, the arch has been the chief means of overcoming the spanning limitations of single blocks of stone or lengths of timber.
There were
three types of arches in ancient architecture. One, which survives
today in Mycenean cyclopean construction, consisted of only three
rough blocks of stone, the central one somewhat larger than the gap
between the other two and wedged between them. A second, of which
monumental examples survive in Egypt from the 3
millennium BC, consisted of only two long blocks inclined toward one
another as an inverted V-shape. This form was probably constructed
even earlier in timber. The third, of which surviving examples are
very widespread, was what is commonly known as the false or corbeled
arch.
None of these early forms was very efficient. Spans rarely exceeded 6 ft. 6 in. (2 m). The spanning of substantially wider gaps called for true arches constructed on centering from large number of bricks or stone voussoirs. Small true brick arches appeared first in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
From the first century AD the Romans began to use concrete in place of cut stone for all the longer spans.
Later brick and stone arches departed from Roman precedents mainly in adoption of other profiles. Of these, the most important were the pointed profiles of most Islamic and of Gothic arches. The Islamic form appeared first and was preceded by a Sassanian form of roughly parabolic profile.
The chief merit of the pointed profile was probably the ease with which it could be used in ribbed vaults of any plan shape and, without aesthetic inconsistency, throughout structures that vaulted in this way.
Early
cast-iron arches of the late 18
and early 19
centuries all closely resembled braced timber arches. Later steel and
reinforced-concrete arches have usually been given the necessary
stiffness simply by the adoption of an I-shaped, boxlike, or tubular
cross section.
Text C. Read the text and describe the Acropolis monuments.
THE ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS
As one of the world's oldest cities Athens boasts a wealth of splendid relics of Hellenic art, some of which are more than 3,000 years old. The Acropolis, the Greek for upper town, the gem of world architecture, stands on a low rocky hill and contains the ruins of several ancient Greek architectural monuments.
The Parthenon, a stately building with an eight-column facade, was built by Ictinus and Callicrates in 447—38 EC. The temple was designed to serve as an exquisite, imposing architectural frame for a stupendous gold and ivory statue of Athena, the goddess in the Greek pantheon watching over the city. This no longer extant statue, which stood in the anterior of the shrine, was held in deep reverence.
Next to the Parthenon is another shrine, an Ionic temple of Athena, the Erechtheum, built by an anonymous architect in 421—06 BC. Its refined loveliness and proportions are a very bit as enchanting as the monumental grandeur of the Parthenon. It has the unparalleled portrayal of a contemporary event on the frieze of the building: the procession of citizens in the yearly festival in honour of Athena built on an awkward site, it also had to serve different cults, which meant that its architect had to design a building with three porches and three different floor levels. Its Caryatid porch, with figures of women for columns, makes use of an old Oriental motif that had appeared earlier, in Archaic treasuries at Delphi. The monumental gateway to the Acropolis, the Propylaea was designed by Mnesicles, who had to adapt the rigid conventions of colonnade construction to a steeply rising site. In the precision and finish of their execution, which complements the brilliant innovation of their design, these three buildings had no rival in the Greek world.
Text D. Read the text about Neoclassicism in England and tell about the works of the English
Neoclassical architects
Robert Adam is one of the outstanding representatives of Neoclassicism in England. His executed works consisted mainly of the remodeling of existing houses, the most important of which were Osterley Park, Middlesex (1761-80); Syon House, Middlesex (1762-69); and Kenwood House, Hampstead, London (1767-69). At Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire (c. 1765-70), he completed James Paine's plan and added a garden front in which the central portion (centrepiece) is clearly derived from an ancient Roman triumphal arch, the first use of this form in domestic architecture. This use of antique forms in a new context is a recurring characteristic of Neoclassical architecture. Adam's planning, to which he devoted considerable attention, was based on a variety of contrasting room shapes, each geometric in itself and contained within an overall geometric plan yet creating a sense of movement, variety, and surprise. Such play with shapes and spaces was to characterize Neoclassical planning, particularly in France.
Of the next generations the leading architects were George Dance the Younger, Henry Holland, and James Wyatt. Dance's Newgate Prison, London (1769; demolished 1902), was among the most original English buildings of the century, a grim, rusticated complex combining the romantic drama of Piranesi with the discipline of Palladio and the Mannerist details of Giulio Romano in an imaginative paradigm of Neoclassicism. Holland was architect to the Prince of Wales and his most important work in this capacity was the extensive remodeling of Carlton House begun in 1783, a refined and elegant whole with a joint debt to Adam and to France.