- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions:
- •2. Comment on the quotations. Do you agree with them? Explain your answers.
- •3. Read and translate the text. The Birth of Art
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Answer the questions to the text.
- •2. Look at the picture of «Venus of Willendorf». Describe it and answer the questions, use the cloud of clues or click on the link to read the Wikipedia article.
- •3. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.
- •4. Retell the text according to the plan:
- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions:
- •2. Mark the periods of Greek art and Roman art on the timeline.
- •3. Read and translate the text. Greece: they invented a lot more than the Olympics
- •Rome: the organizers
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Answer the questions to the texts.
- •Начало формы
- •5. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.
- •6. Retell the text according to the plan:
- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions:
- •2. Fill in the gaps in the chart below.
- •3. Read and translate the text. Medieval art
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Answer the questions to the texts.
- •2. Read the sentences about medieval art and fill in the gaps with the appropriate words or phrases.
- •3. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.
- •4. Retell the text according to the plan:
- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions:
- •2. Look at the map and describe the countries where the Renaissance started and took place, main artists and their masterpieces.
- •3. Read and translate the text. The Renaissance
- •The Early Renaissance
- •The Italian Renaissance
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Answer the questions to the texts.
- •2. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.
- •3 . Look at the two paintings. Compare them, use the words and phrases from the text.
- •4. Retell the text according to the plan:
- •5. Find the answer to the crossword puzzle.
- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions.
- •2. Comment on the quotations. Do you agree with them? Explain your answers.
- •3. Read and translate the text. The Northern Renaissance
- •The German Renaissance
- •Mannerism and the late Renaissance
- •T he Spanish Renaissance
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Answer the questions to the texts.
- •2. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.
- •3. Look at the pictures. Discuss the following questions.
- •5. Retell the text according to the plan:
- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions:
- •3. Read and translate the text. Baroque art
- •Italian Baroque
- •Flemish Baroque
- •Dutch Baroque
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Answer the questions to the texts.
- •2. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.
- •4. These sentences summarize the distinctive features of Baroque style. Decide which of them are true or false.
- •5. Retell the text according to the plan:
- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions:
- •2. Look at the chart and describe the difference between in Baroque style in these countries. Add your own examples of artists, sculptors and architects and their artworks.
- •3. Read and translate the text. English Baroque
- •Spanish Baroque
- •French Baroque
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Answer the questions to the texts.
- •2. Look at the picture. Whose artwork is it? Discuss these questions.
- •5. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.
- •3. The diagram below asks you to connect each genre of painting (center) with its correct description and example. An example has been provided.
- •5. Retell the text according to the plan:
- •Before you read
- •1. Discuss the following questions:
- •2. Look at the chart and make up your own sentences to describe the period of Neoclassicism. Give the examples of artists and their paintings.
- •3. Read and translate the text. Neoclassicism
- •American Neoclassicism
- •Glossary
- •Activities
- •1. Retell the text according to the plan:
Mannerism and the late Renaissance
Between the High Renaissance and the Baroque, from the death of Raphael in 1520 until 1600, art was at an impasse. All problems of representing reality had been solved and art had reached a peak of perfection and harmony. So what now? The answer: replace harmony with dissonance, reason with emotion, and reality with imagination. In an effort to be original, Late Renaissance, or Mannerist, artists abandoned realism based on observation of nature. In the High Renaissance, when times were more stable, picture compositions were symmetrical and weighted toward the center. In the Late Renaissance, compositions were oblique, with a void in the center and figures crowded around the edge of the frame.
Mannerist paintings are identifiable because their style is predictable. Figures writhe and twist in unnecessary contrapposto. Bodies are distorted sometimes grossly muscular. Colors are lurid, heightening the impression of tension, movement, and unreal lighting. Notable Mannerists were Pontormo and Rosso, Bronzino, whose precious, elegant portraits featured long necks and sloping shoulders.
T he Spanish Renaissance
El Greco. After coming to Venice, he appropriated Titian's vivid color and Tintoretto's dramatic lighting and was also influenced by Michelangelo, Raphael, and the Mannerists in Rome. The most striking characteristic of his paintings comes from the inner light. Unearthly illumination flickers over the canvases, making his style the most original of the Renaissance.
Critics have disputed whether El Greco should be considered a Mannerist; some claim he was too idiosyncratic to be classified. His art manifested certain undeniable Mannerist attributes, such as an unnatural light of uncertain origin and harsh colors like strong pink, acid green, and brilliant yellow and blue. His figures were distorted and elongated and the compositions full of swirling movement. Like the Mannerists, El Greco in his religious paintings cared little for accurately representing the visual world. He preferred to create an emotion–laden vision of celestial ecstasy.
Glossary
stubble – the short stiff hairs on a man’s face that grow into a beard if he does not cut them off.
torments – severe physical or mental pain that someone suffers, often caused deliberately by someone else.
genre – a particular style used in cinema, writing, or art, which can be recognized by certain features.
hazy – not clear because there is smoke, dust, or water in the air.
peer – someone who is of the same age as another person.
chiaroscuro – the way that light and dark areas create a pattern, especially in drawings and paintings.
perspective – a way of thinking about something.
hatching – a pattern of parallel lines that are drawn across each other, used especially in drawings for showing dark areas.
oblique – not expressing something directly.
lurid – a lurid colour is very bright in an ugly way.
undeniable – certainly correct or true.