How to Speak about Art in English

233 Pages·2016·55.32 MB·Russian

by  Фалькович М.М.

HOW TO SPEAK
ABOUT ART
IN ENGLISH
4 И (Англ.)
П 61
Авторы:
М. М. Фалькович, Е. М. Лебединская,
Н. С. Стрелкова, А. Д. Цигельная
Пособие по развитию навыков устной речи. (How to
П 61 Speak about Art in English.) М., «Междунар. отношения»,
1976.
216 с.; 1 л. ил.
На обороте тит. л. авт.: М. М. Фалькович, Е. М. Лебедин­
ская, Н. С. Стрелкова, А. Д. Цигельная .
Пособие содержит материалы по истории живописи, скульптуры и архитек­
туры и имеет как практические, так и общеобразовательные цели. Имеющиеся
в пособии упражнения рассчитаны на развитие навыков устной речи и перевода.
70104 — 015
П 003(01) — 76 44 -76 4 И (Англ.)
© Издательство «Международные отношения», 1976 г.
ОТ АВТОРОВ
Настоящее пособие “How to Speak about Art in English”
предназначается для широкого круга лиц, изучающих англий­
ский язык на продвинутой стадии обучениями имеет как обще­
образовательные, так и чисто практические цели.
Людям, изучающим иностранные языки и читающим лите­
ратуру на иностранных языках, необходимо иметь основные
сведения о культуре народов мира и, в частности, об их искус­
стве. Поэтому возникла необходимость в создании пособия,
дающего, во-первых, определенные знания об основных на­
правлениях, крупнейших мастерах и произведениях мирового
изобразительного искусства, во-вторых, словарь для выраже­
ния соответствующих понятий и, в-третьих, систему упраж­
нений, обеспечивающих закрепление словаря и развитие навы­
ков устной и письменной речи на базе этого словаря.
Поскольку пособие предназначено для лиц, изучающих
английский язык (и, соответственно, культуру стран англий­
ского языка), разделы по английской и американской живо­
писи даны несколько шире, чем того требовали бы пропорции
подобной книги на другом языке. А так как предполагается,
что учащиеся достаточно хорошо знакомы с русской культу­
рой, особенно с культурой XIX—XX веков, раздел русского
искусства этого периода занимает • сравнительно меньше
места.
Пособие состоит из семи частей. В каждой части имеются
тексты, пояснения географических и собственных имен, при-
текстовой словарь и упражнения.
Словарь (Vocabulary Notes) определен исключительно те­
матикой пособия и содержит, наряду с русскими эквивален­
тами, пояснения понятия или термина, если содержание его
может быть неизвестно неспециалисту, а также примеры на
словоупотребление.
Из словарных значений выбирались только те, которые
имеют отношение к живописи, скульптуре и архитектуре, а
3
также помогают вести беседу и переводить тексты о художни­
ках и скульпторах, о произведениях изобразительного ис­
кусства и архитектуры. Как правило, то или иное слово или
словосочетание вводится в таком контексте, который наиболее
полно раскрывает его значение (хотя оно могло встретиться
и раньше).
В конце книги имеется русско-английский словарь-ин­
декс, где приводятся отобранные по тематике пособия слова,
даются их английские эквиваленты и указывается страница,
где учащийся может найти перевод данного слова, объясне­
ние, его словосочетаемость, производные, примеры на его
употребление и т. п. Это сделано для удобства пользования
пособием и дает возможность учащемуся познакомиться со
всем отобранным словарем даже в том случае, если какие-
либо разделы не были им изучены.
Упражнения строятся следующим образом: после каждого
раздела, а в некоторых случаях после каждого текста, дают­
ся текстовые упражнения (Work on the Text), целью кото­
рых является раскрыть содержание и язык текста (или тек­
стов); после каждой из семи частей даются упражнения на
закрепление выделенных слов и словосочетаний и на разви­
тие умения проводить беседу и дискуссию по искусству, опи­
сывать картины и другие произведения искусства. По мере
накопления учащимися словаря и знаний в данной области
увеличивается количество и повышается сложность речевых
упражнений.
Пособие предусматривает также развитие навыков пере­
вода, поэтому каждая часть снабжена текстами и предложе­
ниями для перевода с русского языка на английский, а в час­
тях V, VI и VII также имеются диалоги для двустороннего
перевода. При переводческой направленности обучения реко­
мендуется проделывать все эти упражнения целиком; при
других целях обучения из упражнений на перевод можно
переводить только ту часть, которая содержит отрабатываемый
словарь.
Для того чтобы пособием могли пользоваться лица, само­
стоятельно изучающие английский язык или совершенствую­
щие свои знания английского языка, переводческие упраж­
нения снабжены ключами (см. в конце книги). Кроме того, в
каждом разделе предлагаются упражнения на обратный пере­
вод на материале текстов, что также обеспечивает возмож­
ность самообразования (обычно sro упр. I и II в разделах
“Work on the Text”).
C O N T E N T S
Part I. ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ART . 7
§ 1. Introduction (7). § 2. Egyptian Art (7). § 3. Greek
Art (8). § 4. Roman Art (12). § 5. The Middle Ages (18).
§ 6. Gothic Art (18). Medieval Russian Art: § 7. Architecture
(23). § 8. The Moscow Kremlin (25). § 9. Church Painting
(27).
Part II. RENAISSANCE ART ..........................................39
§ 1. Introduction (39). The Early Renaissance: § 2. Giotto
(39). § 3. Masaccio (40). §4. Van Eyck (41). §5. Botticelli
(41). The High Renaissance: § 6. Leonardo da Vinci (46).
§ 7. Raphael (52). § 8. Michelangelo Buonarroti (56). § 9.
Titian (58). § 10. Albrecht Diirer (60). § 11. Pieter Brue­
ghel the Elder (61). § 12. El Greco (62).
Part III. XVII CENTURY A R T ................................................71 v
§ 1. Introduction (71). § 2. Caravaggio (71). § 3. Rubens
(72). § 4. Velasquez (74). § 5. Rembrandt (78). § 6. Vermeer
(81).....................................................................................
Part IV. XVIII—XIX CENTURY ART ..............................89
§ 1. Introduction (89). § 2. Hogarth (89). § 3. Reynolds
(91). § 4. Gainsborough (92). § 5. Constable (97). § 6. Turner
(98). § 7. Goya (102). § 8. David (105). § 9. Ingres (105).
§ 10 Delacroix (107). § 11. Daumier (108).
Part V. FRENCH ART (XIX-XX CENTURIES) . . . 119
§ 1. What is Impressionism? (119). § 2. The Science of Col­
our (119). § 3. The Impressionist Palette (121). §4. The Im­
pressionist Technique (121). §5. Manet (125). §6. Monet (128).
§ 7. Renoir (129). § 8. Degas (133). §9. Rodin (135). § 10. Ce­
zanne (138). § 11. Van Gogh (139). § 12. Gauguin (141).
§ 13. Matisse (144). § 14. Picasso (145)............................................
5
Part VI. RUSSIAN PAINTING (XIX-XX CENTURIES) 157
§ 1. Brullov (157). § 2. Kiprenski, Tropinin (157). § 3. The
Wanderers (158). § 4. Surikov (160). § 5. Repin (161). § 6. Se­
rov (162). § 7. Vrubel (162). § 8. Favorsky (164).
Part VII. AMERICAN ART ......................................................177
§ 1. The Artist in America (177). § 2. Homer (178). § 3. Cassatt
(179). § 4. Whistler (180). § 5. XX Century American Art
(183). § 6. Wyeth (186).
Illustrations..................................................................................176____177
Suggested Key to Translation and Rendering:
Part I (194). Part II (195). Part III (196). Part IV (197).
Part V (199). Part VI (201).
Selected Bibliography ............................................................204
Glossary . . . .......................................................................207
Part I.
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ART
§ I. Introduction
The beginning of art can be traced back to the prehistoric
times when man used tools made from wood, bone or stone, and
modelled figures, drew or painted his first pictures.
At a much later stage (20,000—15,000 В. C.), man made his
first attempts at fashioning a likeness in sculpture and painting.
Using stone and bone he carved sculpture in the round and in re­
lief, fashioned objects out of clay and other material, and adorn­
ed his bone tools with engravings. He also covered the walls
of the caves in which he lived with drawings and paintings.
A primitive religious instinct seems to have motivated him to
produce such works of art which were designed to secure success
in the hunt, the main source of food for Paleolithic man. That
explains why the majority of the sculptures and drawn or painted
pictures represent animals, and particularly those that fell a
prey to the hunters.
The arts of the historic era had their origin in the preceding
prehistoric cultures from which they derived both subject matter
and style. At the root of all artistic endeavour lay religion, assum­
ing the form of animism, i. e. the belief in the animation of
nature, and fetishism, i. e. the worship of supernatural forces in
animals and inanimate objects. A belief in the after-life and
the resultant worship of the dead led to cults which offered vast
sources of inspiration to the arts. Huge tombs and temples were
built, and furnished with the offerings of sculptors, painters and
craftsmen.
The first truly organised national states and with them impor­
tant national cultures developed in the areas where Africa and
Asia meet Europe: in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
§ 2. Egyptian Art
From the dawn of history Egyptian art tended towards monu­
mental forms of expression. Architecture, serving primarily the
worship of the dead, the state religion and the glorification of
7
the ruler, developed as an art that strove to overcome the tran­
sitory nature of life on earth. The belief that an essential condi­
tion for the posthumous life of man was the preservation of his
bodily remains and their safe placing in a tomb which would
withstand the ravages of time and human interference compelled
them to build massive stone tombs. Gigantic royal pyramids
were made, first in a terraced form and then with smooth
sides, either pointed or truncated. The same principles underlay
the architecture of the temples, which ensured for the rulers a
continued existence in the beyond and the lasting favours of
the gods.
The walls of the temples were covered with pictures showing
events in the lives of the gods and the kings. Both in relief and
in painting, the main feature was outline drawing, colour being
used simply to fill in the drawing.
In its initial stages Egyptian sculpture served purposes
similar to those of architecture. It depicted the dead, thereby
guaranteeing the dead soul a posthumous existence. But it was
also used to decorate architecture, sculptures of gods and phar-
aohs, usually carved in hard stone, were placed close to the tem­
ples as images of the deities and kings.
Egyptian sculpture had always shown a surprising feeling
for realism, both in tiny statuettes and monumental statues as
seen for example in the expressive sculptural portraits of King
Amenhotep IV, his wife Nefertiti and their children and in the
statuettes of King Tutankhamen.
The art of ancient Egypt is no dead or exotic thing. It was
from Egypt that Greek art received its first stimulus.
§ 3. Greek Art
The Greek culture of the first centuries after the Greek in­
vasion of the Balkan peninsula is represented in small artistic
objects excavated from tombs. The most usual art forms were
vase painting, marked by geometrical designs, and small religious
figurines in clay.
VArchaic Greek art (eighth century to second quarter of fifth
century В. C.). During the eighth century pottery expanded and
made use of animal motifs (figures of griffons, sphinxes, beasts
of prey, birds, etc.).
A monumental element began to appear in Greek art about
600 В. C. when architecture and sculpture ceased to use wood
and clay and began to make use of stone. The small sanctuary
started to evolve into the vast Greek temple.
One of the oldest temple buildings, of which chiefly small
fragments of the stone structure have survived, is the Temple
of the goddess Hera at Olympia, a construction with wooden
pillars of about the seventh century В. C. The wooden pillars
were replaced around 600 В. C. by stone columns, first mono­
lithic, later composed of several segments, thus giving rise to the
Doric order in architecture. To this group of early temples also
belongs the Temple of Apollo at Corinth, where the columns were
made of enormous monoliths. The temples of the Doric order re­
tained their solemn and rigid character down to classical times.
The architectural style of Greece as expressed in the Doric
style developed into another order in the sixth century. In
the Greek settlements of Asia Minor and on the Aegean Islands
the Ionic order was evolved in which the slender, tall columns
have deeply fluted shafts, a complex base, and on the ornament­
ed headpiece is a capital with a pair of outwardly curling spi­
rals called volutes. The origin of the Ionic order can be traced
to the influences of the architecture of Western Asia, with its
plant elements in the capital and the relief decorations on the
frieze.
In the earliest periods the Greeks had used mainly lime­
stone for sculpture but when they discovered marble they found
themselves dealing with a material that was technically and
aesthetically superior. The brittleness of marble set certain limits
to the complexity of the figures, while the possibilities of a
precise and meticulous fashioning of the form and of the smooth
surface of the statue amply made up for any shortcomings.
The most spectacular successes were the work of Attic sculp­
tors who solvecf the problems of depicting physical shape by their
attempts to create figures in motion which would be artisti­
cally effective from all angles. These endeavours were so wide­
spread towards the end of the fifth century that even the decora­
tion on the pediments of temples came to consist of free-standing,
three-dimensional statues.
From the beginning of the sixth century onwards vase paint­
ing began to use figure subjects within a framework of geometrical
design and ornamental adornment. The most important themes
were those of mythological, ceremonial and moral subjects, a
specific product of the Greek imagination, and mostly inspir­
ed by epic literature.
The painters used black and white varnish on the red back­
ground of the vase, applying silhouette form and scratching
the design in black.
The invasion of Greece by the Persians and the subsequent
9
counter-attack and expulsion of the enemy from Greece, are
events which divide the archaic from the classical period (from
480 to second quarter of third century) in which Greek art
reached its culminating point.
Designers in Greece produced architectural forms which prov­
ed to be a basic source for designs for the following twenty-five
centuries throughout the world.
The Parthenon, a temple honouring the goddess Athena, was
erected on the Acropolis, a fortified hill in Athens, between the
years 447 and 433 В. C. Constructed in marble with ingenuity
and sensitivity, it stands, even in ruins, as one of man’s most
noble expressions. Possessing ideal proportions, a grandeur of
form, and a perfect harmony between ал absolute simplicity and
ornateness, this Greek temple achieved classical design perfec­
tion. The Parthenon’s designers obtained a visual perfection with­
in the temple through both harmony of proportions and nu­
merous subtle compensations for proper visual reactions in view­
ing an elongated rectangular temple. In the lower area of the
Parthenon the long horizontal steps were curved slightly up­
ward to refute a natural optical illusion which would imply a
slightly concave movement in perfectly straight steps. The Dor­
ic columns were designed to lean gently inward, for perfectly
straight perpendicular pillars would appear to slant forward. The
columns also deceived and satisfied the eye through a light
swelling in the shaft which provides a visual sensation of regu­
larity when viewed from below.
The fair number of more or less well preserved temples in
Greece and Sicily show many of the different formal variants in
which the temples of the Doric order were built at this time.
In the middle of the fifth century there appeared sculptors
whose works were regarded as unsurpassable by the ancients. At
this time that master of body movement, the bronze caster My­
ron, produced his famous work, which has been copied many
times, the “Discus Thrower” (“Discobolus”). Here for the first
time the body is depicted in contorted movement, and the mecha­
nism of the bones, tendons, and muscles is scientifically ana­
lysed. Not only did the artist catch the young man at the very
moment when he was about to hurl the discus, but he also manag­
ed to express the emotional tension of the moment. Polycletus
who also worked in bronze, achieved the suggestion of movement
by the contrast between the leg on whichJhe weight rested and
the free leg as in his famous statue of ffh^ “Spear Bearer”.
One of the greatest artists of the times was Phidias. Judging
by the reproductions of his statues of Athena at the Parthenon
10