Текст книги "Практический курс английского языка 3 курс"

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4. Colouring. Light and shade effects: subtle/gaudy colouring, to combine form and colour into harmonious unity; brilliant/low-

keyed colour scheme, the colour scheme where ... predominate; muted in colour; the colours may be cool and restful/hot and agi-

tated/soft and delicate/dull, oppressive, harsh; the delicacy of tones may be lost in a reproduction.

5. Impression. Judgement: the picture may be moving, lyrical, romantic, original, poetic in tone and atmosphere, an exquisite

piece of painting, an unsurpassed masterpiece, distinguished by a marvellous sense of colour and composition.

The picture may be dull, crude, chaotic, a colourless daub of paint, obscure and unintelligible, gaudy, depressing, disappoint ing,

cheap and vulgar.

1. Read the following text for obtaining its information:

Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk, in 1727, the son of John Gainsborough, a cloth merchant. He soon evinced a

marked inclination for drawing and in 1740 his father sent him to London to study art. He stayed in London for eight years, working

under the rococo portrait-engraver Gravelot; he also became familiar with the Flemish tradition of painting, which was highly prized

by London art dealers at that time. "Road through Wood, with Boy Resting and Dog", 1747 is a typical 'genre painting', obviously in-

fluenced by Ruisdael. In Many aspects this work recalls Constable's "Cornfield".

In 1750 Gainsborough moved to Ipswich where his professional career began in earnest. He executed a great many small-sized

portraits as well as landscapes of a decorative nature. In October 1759 Gainsborough moved to Bath. In Bath he became a much

sought-after and fashionable artist, portraying the aristocracy, wealthy merchants, artists and men of letters. He no longer produced

small paintings but, in the manner of Van Dyck, turned to full-length, life-size portraits. From 1774 to 1788 (the year of his death)

Gainsborough lived in London where he divided his time between portraits and pictorial compositions, inspired by Geior– gione,

which Reynolds defined as "fancy pictures" ("The Wood Gatherers", 1787). As a self-taught artist, he did not make the traditional

grand tour or the ritual journey to Italy, but relied on his own remarkable instinct in painting.

Gainsborough is famous for the elegance of his portraits and his pictures of women in particular have an extreme delicacy and re-

finement. As a colourist he has had few rivals among English painters. His best works have those delicate brush strokes which are

found in Rubens and Renoir. They are painted in clear and transparent tone, in a colour scheme where blue and green predominate.

The particular discovery of Gainsborough was the creation of a form of art in which the sitters and the background merge into a

single entity. The landscape is not kept in the background, but in most cases man and nature are fused in a single whole through the

atmospheric harmony of mood; he emphasized that the natural background for his characters neither was, nor ought to be, the

drawing-room or a reconstruction of historical events, but the changeable and harmonious manifestations of nature, as revealed both

in the fleeting moment and in the slowly evolving seasons. In the portrait of "Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife", for example, the

beauty of the green English summer is communicated to the viewer through the sense of well-being and delight which the at-

mosphere visibly creates in the sitters. Gainsborough shows the pleasure of resting on a rustic bench in the cool shade of an oak tree,

while all around the ripe harvest throbs in a hot atmosphere enveloped by a golden light.

Emphasis is nearly always placed on the season in both the landscapes and the portraits, from the time of Gainsborough's ear ly

works until the years of his late maturity: from the burning summer sun in "Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife" to the early autumn

scene in "The Market Cart", painted in 1786—1787, a work penetrated throughout by the richness and warmth of colour of the

season, by its scents of drenched earth and marshy undergrowth.

It is because his art does not easily fall within a well-defined theoretical system that it became a forerunner of the romantic move-

ment, with its feeling for nature and the uncertainty and anxiety experienced by sensitive men when confronted with nature: "Mary,

Countess Howe" (1765), "The Blue Boy" (1770), "Elizabeth and Mary Linley" (1772), "Mrs. Hamilton Nisbet" (1785).

The marriage portrait "The Morning Walk", painted in 1785, represents the perfection of Gainsborough's later style and goes

beyond portraiture to an ideal conception of dignity and grace in the harmony of landscape and figures.

Gainsborough neither had not desired pupils, but his art – ideologically and technically entirely different from that of his rival

Reynolds – had a considerable influence on the artists of the English school who followed him. The landscapes, especially those of

his late manner, anticipate Constable, the marine paintings, Turner. His output includes about eight hundred portraits and more than

two hundred landscapes.

2. Answer the following questions:

1. How did Gainsborough start his career? 2. What is known about the Ipswich period of his life? 3. What kind of practice did

Gainsborough acquire in Bath? 4. What is a self-taught artist? 5. What do you know about the Flemish tradition (school) of painting?

6. What contribution did Van Dyck make to the English school of painting? 7. What are Rubens and Renoir famous for? 8. Why did

Gainsborough place the sitter in direct contact with the landscape? 9. How is his conception of the relationship between man and

nature reflected in the portrait of "Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife"? 10. What distinguishes "The Market Cart"? 11. What do

you know about the portrait of Jonathan Buttall ("The Blue Boy")? 12. Who was Sir Joshua Reynolds? What role did he play in the

history of English art? 13. How did Constable and Turner distinguish themselves?

3. Summarize the text in three paragraphs specifying the contribution Gainsborough made to the English arts.

4. Use the Topical Vocabulary in answering the questions:

1.

What service do you think the artist performs for mankind? 2. Historically there have been various reasons for the making of

pictures, apart from the artist's desire to create a work of visual beauty. Can you point out some of them? 3. How does pictorial art

serve as a valuable historical record? What can it preserve for the posterity? 4. There are certain rules of composition tending to give

unity and coherence to the work of art as a whole. Have you ever observed that triangular or pyramidal composition gives the effect

of stability and repose, while a division of the picture space diagonally tends to give breadth and vigour? Be specific. 5. The painter

who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist. What are some of the qualities a true artist must

possess? 6. Why does it sometimes happen that an artist is not appreciated in his lifetime and yet highly prized by the succeeding

generations? 7. The heyday of the Renaissance is to be placed between the 15th and 16th centuries. Artists began to study anatomy

and the effects of light and shadow, which made their work more life-like. Which great representatives of the period do yoy know? 8.

What national schools of painting are usually distinguished in European art? 9. Classicism attached the main importance to com -

position and figure painting while romanticism laid stress on personal and emotional expression, especially in colour and dramatic

effect. What is typical of realism/impressionism/cubism/expressionism/surrealism? 10. What kinds of pictures are there according to

the artist's theme? 11. Artists can give psychological truth to portraiture not simply by stressing certain main physical features, but by

the subtlety of light and shade. In this respect Rokotov, Lev– itsky and Borovikovsky stand out as unique. Isn't it surprising that they

n/anaged to impart an air of dignity and good breeding to so many of their portraits? 12. Is the figure painter justified in resort ing to

exaggeration and distortion if the effect he has in mind requires it? 13. Landscape is one of the principal means by which artists

express their delight in the visible world. Do we expect topographical accuracy from the landscape painter? 14. What kind of painting

do you prefer? Why?

5. Give a brief talk about an outstanding portrait painter. Choose one you really have a liking for.

6. You are an expert on an outstanding landscape painter. Note down about five pieces of factual information and five pieces of personal

information. Your fellow-students will ask you questions to find out what you know about it.

7. Make a note of the title of the picture that is reasonably well known. Tell the others in the group about the picture. See if they can guess the

title.

8. You are an expert on the Peredvlzhniki/the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions. Your partner is a foreigner who is completely ignorant of

this period in Russian history.

9. A painting can be studied on several levels and from a variety of perspec tives. Here are a few examples of how pictures can be described,

analyzed, interpreted and evaluated. Use the following texts for making imaginary dialogues about the pictures and act them out in class.

A

"Lady Elizabeth Delme and Her Children" by Reynolds is a typical family group portrait in the Grand Style of English portrait

painting. Lady Delme was the wife of a member of Parliament and belonged to the privileged class of the landed nobility. Here, with

an air of apparently casual informality, she is shown on the terrace before her country-house, while behind stretch the broad acres of

her family estate.

Reynolds has taken care that the gestures, facial expressions, and poses of his subjects are appropriate to their age, character, and

social status. "The joy of a monarch," Dryden once wrote, "for the news of a victory must not be expressed like the ecstasy of a

harlequin on the receipt of a letter from his mistress." So, in this portrait, Lady Delme is dignified and gracious, secure in the

knowledge of her beauty and wealth. Her son John, aged five, as if sensing the responsibilities of manhood, gazes sternly toward the

distant horizon. Her other son, Emelias Henry, in unmasculine skirts as befits his three years, is coy and winsome. The fourth

member of the group, the unkempt Skye terrier, is the embodiment of loyal affection. Note the simplicity of the pyramidal design and

the low-keyed colour scheme. These features were for Reynolds symbols of dignity and good taste.

B

The "Mrs. Sarah Siddons" by Gainsborough has the distinction of being not only a remarkable work of art, but a unique

interpretation of a unique personality. It is not only one of the artist's finest portraits, but also one of the best of the many likenesses

of the great tragic actress, who sat to most of the celebrated masters of her day. It was painted in 1783—1785, when the queen of the

tragic drama was in her twenty-ninth year and at the zenith of her fame.

An enthusiastic admirer who saw it in the Manchester exhibition of 1857 wrote as follows: "The great tragic actress, who inter-

preted the passions with such energy and such feeling, and who felt them so strongly herself, is better portrayed in this simple half-

length in her day dress, than in allegorical portraits as the Tragic Muse or in character parts. This portrait is so original, so individu al,

as a poetic expression of character, as a deliberate selection of pose, as bold colour and free handling, that it is like the work of no

other painter.

C

"Dedham Lock and Mill" (1820)

This is a brilliant example of Constable's view painting at its complete maturity. The salient features of the landscape are treated in

sharp relief– even those not strictly necessary– yet they merge perfectly under a serene, perfect light. This painting contains, in

synthesis, all the elements of landscape which Constable loved best: the river, the boats, the soaked logs, the river vegetation, the sun

shining through the foliage of the tall trees, the scenes of rural life and, above all, Dedham Mill. The cultural origins of this work are

apparent in the traditional composition, in the use of chiaroscuro, in the way the landscape fades into the distance, after the Dutch

manner, and in the complex, laboured palette. The compact tree mass in the foreground is blocked in against a sky filled with

movement, reflected in the calm and transparent waters over which plays a pallid sun, as we find in Ruisdael.

D

For Constable I have an affection that goes back to my earliest reco^ections. In the first years of my childhood, there hung in the

halls of my father's house a large steel engraving of "The Cornfield". Often in the long hot summers of the Middle West, I used to lie

on the floor, gazing for hours into this English landscape carried from the dry and burning world around me into a vista of blessed

coolness, thick verdure, dampness and everlasting peace.

I lived in that picture. To me it was more beautiful than a dream: the boy, flat on the ground drinking from a running brook; the sheep

dog waiting patiently with turned head; the ambling flock; the old silent trees; the fat clouds reeking moisture ...

Some years later, when I went to London to study pictures, I saw "The Cornfield" and many others by Constable, and my first

impressions were confirmed. In his grasp of the stable, one might almost say formidable, repose that man feels in the presence of

nature, and in communicating the spiritual contentment induced by companionships with nature, Constable is the master of the

English school.

E

Constable never travelled outside England. He was slow to develop as an artist, and slow to become famous. In all these things

he was the very opposite of Turner. If he was Wordsworthian in his attitude to nature, Turner was Byronic. The elements which seem

so domesticated in Constable's pictures are at their most extreme and battling in Turner's grandest pictures. The large "Fire at Sea"

depicts man's hopeless fight amid storm and disaster. Human beings are literal flotsam in a raging sea. Turner himself actually

experienced the "Snowstorm: Steamboat off a Harbour Mouth" in which wind and snow and spray sport with the unfortunate

steamboat until it is barely visible except for a straining mast. There is a tremendous exhilarating terror in this moment when all

nature's forces are unleashed. Something of the same drama is in "Rain, Steam, and Speed", where the glowing train forces its way

over the high viaduct through the driving mist and rain – and here man is winning through, thanks to the newly invented steam

engine. But Turner's intense receptivity to nature's moods made him able to capture also moments of utter tranquility. In the "Evening

Star" there is nothing but the merging of sea and sky, day and night, as evening slowly sucks the colour from things; and only the

diamond point of the single star shines out, caught tremblingly on the dark water. The same poignancy hovers about "The Fighting

Téméraire" in which between dusk and day an old ship is tugged to its last berth. The ghostly hulk floats over the calm glassy sea,

and the sun sinks like a bonfire in the west, seeming a symbol of the life that is ended, stirring us to a quite irrational sadness for days

gone by. Such is Turner's poetry.

10. Select a reproduction of a portrait painting and discuss it according to the following outline:

1. The general effect. (The title and name of the artist. The period or trend represented. Does it appear natural and spontaneous or

contrived and artificial?)

2. The contents of the picture. (Place, time and setting. The age and physical appearance of the sitter. The accessories, the dress

and environment. Any attempt to render the personality and emotions of the model. What does the artist accentuate in his subject?)

3. The composition and colouring. (How is the sitter represented? Against what background? Any prevailing format? Is the

posture bold or rigid? Do the hands (head, body) look natural and informal? How do the eyes gaze? Does the painter concentrate on

the analysis of details? What tints predominate in the colour scheme? Do the colours blend imperceptibly? Are the brushstrokes left

visible?)

4. Interpretation and evaluation. (Does it exemplify a high degree of artistic skill? What feelings, moods or ideas does it evoke in

the viewer?)

11. Because of their special environment, museums and picture galleries offer the kind of conditions that allow a student to experience the

intrinsic qualities of the art object. The atmosphere of museums evokes marvel. When our emotions are roused, we are more sensitive, we openly

explore, make discoveries, and ultimately are more receptive to the learning experience. Enlarge on the benefits of museums and picture galleries.

12. Give an account of your own visit to a picture gallery.

13. Communication Work:

a) Get your fellow-student to give you information about his/ her favourite museum. Try to get as many details as you can.

b) You are a novice teacher getting ready to take your charges to the Tretyakov Gallery/the Russian Museum/the Hermitage. Ask

for advice and suggestions from an expert.

c) Persuade your partner to agree with your opinion that life is made much more colourful if you regularly visit art exhibitions.

d) One of you has recently returned from England. The other is questioning him/her on the impressions of the National Gallery/

the Tate Gallery.

e) Tfre great value of visiting a museum and studying works of art first-hand is that one becomes aware of the qualitative differ -

ence between original art and photographic reproductions. Work in pairs and enlarge on this statement.

14. Read the following dialogues. The expressions in bold type show the WAYS ENGLISH PEOPLE EXPRESS LIKES AND DISLIKES. Note

them down. Be ready to act out the dialogues in class:

– Isn't that lovely?

– What a dull picture! Why, there's no colour in it.

– That a dull picture! Why, it's beautiful, it's perfect, if it had

any more colour it would be wrong.

– But I don't think so. Each to our own opinion, dear Simon.

– ... Forgive me, darling. To lose my temper because you didn't like that picture, how childish!

– Yes, you were funny; I have never seen you like that before, quite a baby, Simon. If I really thought you liked that thing,

Simon, I'd begin to wonder at your taste.

– But I did like it. I haven't seen a picture for years I have liked so much.

They paused before the prizewinner.

– I think that one's got something. For once I believe that I'd agree with the judges.

– I hate it like hell.

– What don't you like about it?

– Everything. To me it's just phoney. No pilot in his senses would be flying as low as that with thermo-nuclear bombs going off

all around.

– It's got good composition and good colouring.

– Oh, sure. But the subject's phoney.

15. Discussing and evaluating things often involves stating your preference. Here are some ways of expressing likes and dislikes. Notice that you need to

be very polite when criticizing things in English – even speaking to someone you know quite well.

Expressing likes

I like ... very much indeed.

I (really) enjoy...

I've always liked/loved ...

There's nothing I like/enjoy more than ...

I'm (really) very fond o f . . .

... is (really) terrific/great, etc.

It's too lovely for words. Expressing dislikes

(I'm afraid) I don't like ...

I've never liked ..., I'm afraid.

... is not one of my favourite ...

I (really) hate...

I think ... is pretty awful/really unpleasant.

I'm not (really) very keen on ...

... is ghastly/rubbish.

I can't say ... appeals to me very much.

I must say I'm not too fond of...

16. Work in pairs, a) Find out each other's feelings about these subjects. Use the clichés of likes and dislikes:

1. An art book for a birthday present. 2. Snapshots from a family album. 3. Pupils' drawings for the school exhibition. 4. Your

grandma's picture postcards. 5. A guided tour of a museum. 6. Landscape painting. 7. Impressionism. 8. Genre painting. 9. Animals in

art. 10. Still life.

b) Report your partner's opinion to the students in another group.

17. Read the following text. Find in it arguments for including popular arts in the art curriculum and against it. Copy them out into two

columns (I – «for», II – «against»):

A new issue in aesthetic education today has to do with the choice of art examples to use in the classroom, specifically, whether

they should be restricted to recognized works of fine art or allowed to include such art forms as posters, album covers, billboards, and

particularly cinema and television.

Since the popular arts are a reflection and product of popular culture, exploring the popular culture should be a valid method of

inquiry. Popular arts are already a part of the children's lives and they enable the teacher to "start where the kids are". Further, they

facilitate the responses the children are already having with their preferred art forms rather than imposing adult middle class stan-

dards on them. We know also that art which students encounter in schools – the official or high art embodied in the official curricu -

lum – stands in an adversary relation to the media of popular entertainment. A critical analysis of the forms reflected in popular art is

imperative if we want to elicit meaningful dialogue about art.

Not all writers in art education have taken a positive position in regard to the popular arts. An opinion exists that fine art objects

are the only objects with the power to impart a markedly aesthetic aspect to human experience. Certain scholars "refuse to cheapen

art's magnificent and supreme excellence by comparing it to comic strips and other essentially vulgar commodities", claiming that

popular culture was the result of the public's inability to appreciate high art. Even those who recognize popular arts as art forms sug-

gest that the schools should go beyond them, because "serious art" makes more demands on the viewer.

Some art educators argue that concepts of fine art and popular art are relative and that the distinction between the two is slight if

not illusory. What we see in art museums and art galleries includes a lot of different things from all over the world, from cultures and

periods of time in which the concept of art, as we know it, did not exist. In their original contexts, such objects often served a variety

of functions, such as magical, ritualistic, narrative, or utilitarian but almost never aesthetic.

It is well known that many of the things we regard so highly today, such as Gothic cathedrals, El Grecos, Rembrandts, Goyas or

Cezannes, were ignored or scorned at different periods of time. Many things we ignore or scorn today, such as the work of the French

or Royal Academies in the 19th century, were at one time highly regarded. A work's reputation can be affected precipitously by the

accident of reattribution. A highly regarded Rembrandt, subsequently discovered to be not by Rembrandt drops in value immediately.

The same thing can happen in reverse. Finally, there are cases in which objects have lost not only their monetary and intrinsic value,

but also their status as art objects because they are fakes

18. Discuss the text in pairs. One partner will take the optimistic view and insist that popular arts should be included in the art curriculum. The

other will defend the opposite point of view.

Consider the following

F o r :

responsive to the forms of art which the teacher wishes to

1. The differences between popular and fine art are often

introduce.

matters of classification.

2. Popular art facilitates the aesthetic experience and therefore

A g a i n s t :

is appropriate for study in the field of art education.

1. Fine arts in each epoch supplied the models from which the

3.The content of the popular arts is of relevance to the

rules and principles were derived.

students and, through art criticism, can lead to a more

penetrating analysis of these and other art forms.

2. Fine arts are more noble, more worthy than all the other

opportunities available for visual aesthetic experience

4.The popular arts allow students to talk about

around us.

emotionally meaningful experiences.

3.Tastes should be developed through images of high artistic

5.They can aid the student's understanding of his culture as

culture, whereas works of popular culture as a rule meet

well as the cultures of other peoples.

consumer's tastes.

6.Once the teacher is able to establish a trusting relationship

4.Excellent, or fine art is better than poor art for providing

and a rapport with his students, the students might be more

students with a strong personal and cultural awareness.

5.A lot of popular art is debased and meretricious.

7.The habit of looking at good pictures is in itself a means by

which taste can be formed.

6.We have no right to "condemn" students to the easily

comprehensible forms of popular art. Any student can

develop an appreciation of the fine arts.

19. Role-Playing.

The Thing They Need

S i t u a t i o n : A group of students from a teacher training institute now on school practice and their instructor are discussing

what sort of social event to organize for the pupils of form 9 "A". In the course of the discussion opinions differ. You must decide

whose arguments sound more convincing.

C h a r a c t e r s :

1. Anna K., aged 23, is fond of pictorial art and suggests visiting the town's art gallery where the works of M.Vrubel are on

display at present ("Pan", "The Swan Princess", "Seated Demon" among them). The harmonious combination of the fantastic and the

real, the gorgeous colour schemes are sure to appeal to the pupils of form 9 "A". What they want is something noble and worthy, an

uplifting experience.

2. Victor M., aged 25, does not share Ann's enthusiasm for classical art. He has nothing against it personally but thinks that teen-

agers need a different kind of artistic experience, something that they can possibly share in. He wants to take the pupils to a pop

concert to be held in the near future not far from the school. According to him young people prefer pop to the classical arts. It is

closer to their own experience of life, and provides an emotional outlet and release. Picture galleries are for elderly spinsters with

nothing to do.

3. Katherine L., aged 51, resents Victor's outburst and tells of her own school days: they used to visit the Tretyakov Gallery

every week and studied the art of the famous Russian painters of the 18th and 19th centuries. A professional artist showed them

round the Gallery. It was all thanks to this very artist that she fell in love with classical art. She remembers as if it were yesterday the

joy of listening to his lively descriptions of the subtleties of the composition and colour combinations. It is unacceptable to her that

the younger generation should be allowed to remain indifferent to such a wealth of classical heritage.

4. Marina K., aged 24, listened with pleasure to the views of her supervisor K. L. and couldn't agree more. She suggests invit ing

a specialist from the Museum of Fine Arts to give a lecture on the history of English painting. She had been present at the lecture on

the French impressionists and loved every minute of it. The slides were a dream. "English painters" might be great fun too. She

knows the telephone number and offers to do it herself.

5. Alexandra T., aged 23, is rather sceptical about Marina's project. Experience tends to show that pupils from 9 "A" make a

point of not participating in any of the schools activities, they are unlikely to be attracted to something so sophisticated and dry as a

lecture on art, slides or no slides. She puts forward the idea of a film, perhaps even about a painter, but not on any account a lecture.

6. Helen B., aged 23, admits she is no great art specialist herself, nevertheless she believes in handing down one's cultural her-

itage from one generation to the next. Why not take the pupils on an excursion to Abramtsevo, the former estate of the famous art-

patron Mamontov, where Korovin and Vrubel worked on stage decorations and Valentin Serov painted his famous "Girl with

Peaches". Even if the pupils fail to appreciate the works of art, a day in the open air is sure to do them a world of good.

7. Lucy B., aged 24, does not care for fine arts and is not ashamed to admit it. 9 "A" has worked hard all year. How can one expect

them at the end of term to continue taking an active interest in serious, heavy subjects such as classical art. What they need now is

diversion, relaxation, a chance to unwind. Why not organize a picnic, perhaps on bicycles. She knows some fine woods not too far

away where they could escape from the bustle of the city and play volleyball, badminton or whatever.

20. Group Discussion.

Topic 1. Is the appreciation of pictures a special faculty which only a few can possess?

T a l k i n g p o i n t s :

1. The excellency of style is not on the surface, but lies deep. It is the florid style which strikes at once. There is no need to be

ashamed of one's apparent dullness.

2. The habit of looking at good pictures is in itself a means by which taste can be formed and the scope of one's enjoyment wid-

ened and developed.

3. The acquisition of good taste is a matter of time. Painting in

this respect does not differ from other arts (poetry, music).

*

Topic 2. A great painting enriches our experience of life, just as a great poem does or a great musical composition

T a l k i n g p o i n t s :

1. The more we look at it the more it reveals and this is not necessarily because of the amount of detail and incident it contains.

2. Great painters make us see and think a great deal more than the objects before us, they teach us to look at a scene through their