XX. Answer the questions:

1. How does Mr. Bigger describe The Fourth Earl Hurtmore?

2. How does he describe his wife?

3. What did Venice mean for Earl Hurtmore?

4. What did Venice mean for Lady Hurtmore?

5. Why did The Lord of the Manor doubt that it was the work of an Old

Master?

6. Why did he want to have some works by Old Masters?

7. What do we learn about the portrait and the painter (Giangolini)?

8. Is Giangolini a real figure?

9. How is Crowley represented in the story?

XIX. Final discussion.

1. What are the main characters of the story?

2. Are they representatives of different classes? What classes do they represent?

3. Does Mr. Bigger seem to you a typical art-dealer and his customer a typical bourgeois? Prove your point of view.

4. With what character of the story are the sympathies of the author?

5. Does the inside story have anything in common with outside story? Does the inside story seem to be in accordance with the taste and the expectations of the Lord of the Manor?

6. Do people often appreciate pieces of art not for their artistic value but for some story behind them?

7. What is your impression of the story? What is the main idea of the story?

(The world of art is opposed to the world of business)

XX. Find a portrait and invent an interesting story to attract the listeners’ attention to it.

Notes:

morbidezza – the delicate, subtle and lifelike rendering of flesh in painting, sculpture, engraving.

Anne Boleyn – about 1507-1536, second wife of Henry YIII of England, mother of Queen Elizabeth.

Nell Gwynn – 1650-1687, English actress, mistress of Charles II.

Duke of Wellington – 1769-1852, First Duke, known as The Iron Duke.

Ridotto – the hall where a musical and dancing entertainment is given.

Cara amica – ит. дорогой друг

cicisbeo (pl. cicisbei) ит. кавалер, постоянный спутник

Lido – an Italian island in the Adriatic South East of Venice, fashionable seaside resort.

Misericordia – Italian bural society, rendering service to all.

Santa Maria – a well known church in Venice