1. Peter Paul Rubens was the most educated person of his time.
2. Rubens was fond of High Renaissance masters.
3. As Rubens's style matured, it took on a richness of colour.
4. Rubens's figures were disembodied and mystical.
5. In 1621-25 Rubens carried out a splendid commission from Louis XIII.
6. Rubens depicted the major Roman gods in the portrait of Maria de' MedicI.
II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?
1. When and where did Rubens first emerge on the international scene? Where was Rubens educated?
2. What could Rubens allegedly do at one and the same time? How did Rubens produce his works of art?
3. What is represented in the
5. How did the Michelangelo and the Titian influence Rubens's works of art? In what way did Rubens's works differ from the masterpieces of the Renaissance masters?
6. What do twenty one large canvases present? What is the best painting? What does it portray? What gods and goddesses are depicted there? How are they shown? What do they symbolize? What makes this painting one of the happiest of Rubens's allegorical works? How long did Rubens support the dowager Queen of France? What did it show?
7. What is represented in the
III. I. Give Ritssian equivalents of the following phrases:
to exercise a great stylistic authority; a page to a countess; a never-ending stream of works; colour sketches on wood; a helmet and a shield; to emerge on the international scene; indefatigable energy; to raise the Cross; to make copies after Roman sculpture; the superhuman energy; the central panel of a triptych; to carry out a commission; dowager Queen of France; to be protected at every point by the divinities; a ceremonial gallery in the palace; conipositional inventiveness; Classical learning; the divine intervention; the years of exile; executioners; a tribute to; a Baroque artist; to receive its embodiment in; the Baroque testament; the energy of the composition; final coating; the redeeming power of love; Caravaggio's psychological interests; a complete picture in itself; a pyramid of struggling figures.
II. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:
появиться на международной арене; монументальные произведения; годы ссылки; композиционная изобретательность; классическое образование; неуемная энергия; пользоваться большим авторитетом; нескончаемый поток работ; быть защищенным со всех сторон божествами; самостоятельная картина; палачи; сделать множество рисунков; копировать древнеримские статуи; центральная часть триптиха; выполнить заказ; вклад в; могущественный заказчик; парадная галерея дворца; божественное вмешательство; получить воплощение в; напоминать фигуры Микеланджело; искупляющая сила любви; богатство цвета; вдовствующая королева; цветные наброски на дереве.
III. Make up questions with the given phrases.
IV. Arrange the following in the pairs of synonyms.
a) regent; to recount; testament; canvas; splendid; executioner;
b) murderer; queen; magnificent; to tell; picture; will.
IV. Here are descriptions of some of Rubens's works of art. Match them up to the given titles…
1. Cupids fly above the scene with bows, arrows, and torches,
2. Grotesque figures rain down from Heaven.
3. The executioners form a colossal pyramid.
4. The gods advise the King to accept her as his second bride.
a. Henry iv Receiving the Portrait of Maria de' Medici
b. Raising of the Cross
c. Garden of Love
d. Fall of the Damned
V. Translate the text into English.
Питер Паул Рубенс, крупнейший фламандский художник XVII в., был одним из самых образованных людей своего времени. Первые годы своей творческой жизни Рубенс провел в Италии. В Венеции он изучал работы Тициана, в Риме – произведения Микеланджело. В Италии Рубенс быстро стал знаменитым. С 1601 г. он – придворный художник герцога Гон-зага в Мантуе. В 1608 г. Рубенс вернулся на родину во Фландрию. Он много работал над монументальными произведениями. На одном из них – алтарном образе «Воздвижение креста» – изображен распятый Христос. В 1621-1625 гг. Рубенс получил заказ на цикл из 21 картины «Жизнь Марии Медичи» от французской королевы, вдовы Генриха iv, для украшения Люксембургского дворца. Это – блистательное творение монументально-декоративного искусства. Здесь наряду с аллегорическими образами и мифологическими персонажами Рубенс изобразил реальные исторические лица.
Искусство Рубенса – типичное выражение барокко. Художник часто писал картины на сюжеты античных мифов. Рубенс оказал большое влияние на последующее развитие западноевропейского искусства.
VI. Summarize the text.
VII. Topics for discussion.
1. Rubens's mode of life and production system.
2. Rubens's style and characters.
3. Rubens as a Baroque painter.
Unit XIII Velazquez (1599-1660)
Diego Rodriguez de Silva у Velazquez was the greatest Spanish painter. Born in Seville, Velazquez studied with the local Mannerist Francisco Pacheco. In 1623 Velazquez was appointed court painter and settled permanently in Madrid. By 1627 he was established in the royal household and got the rank of court chamberlain. It gave him a residence attached to the palace and a studio inside it. For more than 30 years Velazquez painted King Philip iv and members of the royal family and court, produced historical, mythological, and religious pictures. His paintings were influenced by Rubens and the Venetian artists.
Velazquez never deserted the integrity of his own style. He did not adopt the characteristic devices of allegorical figures, columns, curtains of boiling clouds utilized by most Catholic painters of the seventeenth century. Velazquez was attached to nature.
He visited Italy twice and expressed a frank dislike for Raphael and thus for the Italian idealism. Velazquez admired Titian and copied Tintoretto as an exercise in freedom of the brush. Throughout his life Velazquez was deeply concerned with the principles of composition and design.
When Caravaggesques realism penetrated Spain, it was felt by the young Velazquez as a liberation. Velazquez's interpretation of this movement was original. His
