Vocabulary to be memorized. The Santa Crose Frescoes

Text I

The Santa Crose Frescoes

Giotto's style reached its full development in the frescoes of the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels in Santa Croce, Florence.He had also decorated two other chapels here, the Tosinghi and .the Giun gi,but those frescoes have disappeared as the result of renovations. In the Bardi chapel the frescoes represent episodes from the life of St. Francis painted in three superimposed rows on the right and left walls. In a similar disposition of three levels in the Peruzzi chapel we see scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist. on the left wall and from the life of St. John the Evangelist on the right wall. Santa Croce being the Franciscan church of Florence, it was fitting to commemorate⁷ St. Francis in the frescoes of the Bardi chapel. It was also fitting to choose stories from the life of John the Baptist in the Peruzzi chapel, John being the patron saint of Florence.

Although the frescoes of both chapels weregone over and re­touched in the nineteenth century — most of this retouching has recently been removed from the Bardi chapel frescoes—enough is at hand from which to judge Giotto's late style. We note a much less rugged treatment of the human forms than had been the case at Padua.⁸ The proportions are more slender and incline toward elegance; and the emotions are more muted. Although the scene of St. Francis' death in the Bardi chapel recalls the Pieta⁹ in Padua, these changes in form and emotion are patent. The figures in the Santa Croce fresooes in general are much more related to and contained by the architecture ¹⁰ in which they are set. There is an obvious insistencqj on a symmetrically balanced architectu­ral background even when the figure groups may be asymmetri­cally arranged. In the famous fresco in the Peruzzi chapel of the Feast of Herod, the architecture stretched across the background

Hike a folding screen with re-entrant angles may suggest a sense of recession in space,¹¹ a problem that was to be attacked with surprising results by Giotto's forward-looking pupils Maso and Taddeo Gaddi. But Giotto in this and other frescoes in Santa Croce maintains a compositional control between the forms and the architectural backgrounds.

Notes to the text

¹in до uncertain terms — четко, определенно

² at the hands of ... Giotto —зд. в творчестве Джотто, букв, в руках Джотто

³ are in line with (амер.) — соответствуют

⁴ in terms of Gothic sculpture — в традиции, в манере готической скульп­туры

⁵ physical thereness — материальность

⁶ is scarcely adequate — едва ли соответствует

⁷ it was fitting to commemorate — подобало чтить память

⁸ than had been the case at Padua—чем в работах, выполненных в Па­дуе; чем это было в Падуе

⁹ Pieta — оплакивание

¹⁰ contained by the architecture — подчинены архитектуре
¹¹ recession in space— перспектива

Expressions to be memorized

to bring in contact (with) —приводить к знакомству
to come into closer contact —ближе познакомиться

just as —точно так же, как

to add to the effect — увеличивать впечатление

to be familiar (with)— быть хорошо знакомым

to go over— восстанавливать, подновлять

at hand — в. наличии, под рукой

to suggest a sense ... — создавать ощущение

to attack a problem — подходить к проблеме, пытаться разрешить проблему

Exercises

1. Form adverbs from the following adjectives by means of the suffix -ly and translate both adjectives and adverbs into Russian:

enormous, obvious, perceptible, sharp, complete, similar, scarce, direct,
recent;

2. Link adjectives with suitable nouns:

Adjectives: complete, ultimate, perceptible, large-scale, canopied, kneeling, slender, folding, balanced, flimsy, huge.

Nouns: victory, drapery, throne, triumph, screen, proportions, figure, compo­sition, change, canvas, clothes.

3. Translate the following sentences into Russian:

1. He was familiar with the place, having been born there.

2. Van Gogh's aspirations to become a painter brought him in contact with the works of the Impressionists.

3. Raphael's Madonna’s suggest a sense of profound peaceful ness and divine serenity.

4. Having all his implements close at hand the artist set out to paint the glorious sunset.

5. Some of those frescoes being gone over, we can get but a poor idea of their original beauty.

6. Raphael is considered the greatest painter of the Renaissance just as Michelangelo is its greatest sculptor.

7. Owing to Pissaro Gauguin came into closer contact with the Impressionists.

4. Translate from Russian into English using expressions from the text:

1. Ангелы, преклонившие колени у подножья трона, навеяны готическими фигурами из слоновой кости.

2. Мы можем заключить, что Джотто, вероятно, был знаком с работами братьев Пизано.

3. Новый готический стиль был утвержден в Тоскане Андреа Пизано.

4. В Риме многие худож­ники находились под влиянием традиций классической скульптуры.

5. На стенах капеллы Барди Джотто изобразил сцены из жизни Иоанна Крести­теля.

6. Эти фрески сильно поблекли и были подправлены в XIX в.

7. Светлое платье центральной фигуры контрастно выделяется на темном фоне

8. В поздних работах Джотто трактовка человеческих фигур более утонченная (refined).

9. Сцена смерти святого Франциска в капелле Барди напоминает по композиции Pieta в Падуе.

Vocabulary to be memorized

accomplishments — достижения, совершенства

add (to) —увеличивать

angle — угол

bulk — масса, массивная фигура

canopied — с балдахином от canopy — балдахин

collapse — падение, крушение

commemorate — чтить память

complete — полный

contrast (with) — контрастировать, контрастно выделяться

creator — творец, создатель

curve — изогнутая линия

curvilinear — изогнутый

disposition — расположение

domination — господство

drapery — одежда, уложенная мяг­кими складками, мягкие складки.

Emphasize — подчеркивать, усиливать

enormously — чрезвычайно

enthroned — сидящая на троне

flimsy — легкий, тонкий, непрочный

foot — подножие

forcibly — сильно

forward-looking — дальновидный

huge — огромный

influence — влиять be influenced (by) — находиться под влиянием

inspire – вдохновлять be inspired — быть навеянным

intermingle — смешивать

kneel — преклонять колени

large-scale — большого размера

level — ярус, уровень

looped — схваченный узлом, подхва­ченный

mention — упоминать

mute — приглушенный

obvious — очевидный

perceptible — заметный

presume — предполагать, заключать

pulpit — кафедра проповедника

recall — напоминать

rectangular — прямоугольный

re-entrant — входящие внутрь

relieve — вносить разнообразие

remove — удалять

retouch — подправлять, подновлять

rugged — грубый

screen — ширма

search — поиски

sharply — резко

similar — подобный

slender — изящный, стройный

space — пространство

superimposed — расположенный один

над другим

support — поддерживать

throne — трон

treatment — трактовка

ultimate — окончательный

Text II

Britain and Fashion

It could be argued that height fashion has been Britain’s most successful visual art form since the Second World War. In this area Britain is comfortable in the company of its major competitors: France, the US, Italy and Japan. The Britishness of British fashion determines its inspirational role, sets it apart and establishes its identity. British fashion is peculiar to itself.

This a mot surprising success story, as many facets of British culture would appear to b e antipathetic to the idea of high fashion. The powerful Protestant ethic traditionally militates against show and excess and willingness to invest capital, or to indulge in elite luxury, have hardly been national characteristics. The frivolity and hedonism associated with fashion goes against the perceived grain of Britishness. This partly explains why the British have never fully recognized, in the way that others have, the commercial potential and cultural cachet of the high-fashion industry.

British high fashion has been little supported by government and industry, nor has it enjoyed the patronage of the wealthy. Paradoxically, Tate-funded art schools provide the finest fashion training in the world. But, once qualified, British designers are temped to show abroad, have their clothes made abroad and establish their reputations abroad. High fashion in Britain is a maverick industry populated with individual high-achievers, but there is precious little infrastructure.

Exploring the Britishness of British high fashion, this chapter considers the industry in its historical context and looks at its structure and status. Additionally, it points up the significance of British art-school training and consider the shift from haute coutureto designer-level ready-to-wear clothing in the post-war years. British fashion textiles, a topic that deserves its own study, are also mentioned.

It is clear that in recent decades British peculiarities have been brilliantly exploited by fashion designers. Fashion a mirror of socio-cultural trends,reflecting nuances of the culture from which it emerges. Whether inadvertently absorbed or fully exploited by fashion designers, national identity offers a route to product differentiation and makes good business sense. In the order to persuade buyers and press to include London on their seasonal tour designers have to present distinctive collections.

It is worth pondering what constitutes the Britishness of British fashion. From the 1870s, when Britain’s role as the‘workshop of the world’ was undermined, the British have increasingly projected a national identity dominated from history need custom. Some have suggested that the quip about all the oldest British traditions being invented at the end of the nineteenth century has a lot of truth in it. Britain’s profile was created not by looking till the future, but to its illustrious past: when the present is unstable, the past is an obvious refuge.

Britain has effectively been in economic and imperil decline for the whole of the twentieth century, the period that corresponds with the rise of most cultural forms of modernism. It was inevitable that the British would attempt to combine tradition with modernity in order to present themselves in the contemporary world. Aquintessential feature of British fashion is its preoccupation with historical stile; the past is reworked and re-presented as the future.

The characteristics of a nation’s cultural product are partly determined by geography and climate. In his famous study The Englishness of English Art (1956) Nikolaus Pevsner cite landscape and climate as determinants in the psychological formation of population. It is perhaps natural that a nation that constantly complains about its wet weather should become a market leader in rain wear. The landscape and climate are conducive to sheep farming; it is no coincidence that woolen textiles and yarn are central to Britain’s sartorial identity. These factors also shape colour preferences.As Pevsner states, ‘Animals of cold climates are grew, brown and black- tigers and parrots live in hot climates. So too art will take on a different hue in the mists of the north and under clear blue skies.’

Explorations of socio-cultural conditions can provide more solid insights, while high-lighting apparent conundrums. As W.D. Rubenstein, in Past and Present (1977) points out, Britain is in many ways an anomalous country, being ‘the first with a bourgeois revolution, the last with an aristocracy; the earliest with a modern working-class revolution, yet manifesting the least working-class consciousness the earliest with industrialization, yet the last among the advanced countries to witness a merger of finance and industry, and so on’. Being the first country to industrialize, Britain became obsessed with the integrity of the non-industrial environment. Before the end of the eighteenth century Romantic poets were ruing the effects of an industrial activity that had barely begun, and the British have been perceptions of rural life ever since. Britain has been thoroughly urbanized since the late nineteenth century, yet authentic country clothing and its spin-offs have remained a staple feature of fashion. The homogenizing effects associated with industrial development have led to a constant desire for individuality. Underpinning 200 years of romantic ecapism. Bohemian styleand romantic eveningwear, areas in which British fashion designers excel, eloquently reflect this spirit. Conversely, the British love of understatement has been perfectly served by a tailoring tradition.