English for the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture · 2016. 11. 10. · 3 PRESENTATION • Shades and Shapes is a book for students at “Liceo Artistico” with its six different

Donatella Bottero • Viola Invernizzi • Veronica Polichetti • Nadia Sanità

Shades and ShapesShades and ShapesEnglish for the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture

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Donatella Bottero • Viola Invernizzi • Veronica Polichetti • Nadia Sanità

Shades and ShapesEnglish for the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture

The plan and the contents of the book were jointly realized by the authors. However, in particular, Viola

Invernizzi e Veronica Polichetti worked on Module 1; Donatella Bottero on Modules 2 and 3; Nadia Sanità

on Modules 4, 5 and 6.

In line with the provisions of the law and the guidelines of the Ministry of Education, we attest to the

publication of this book in paper as well as in digital form (“forma mista”).

On its website, EDISCO offers the free use of various didactic online resources: extra material for in-

depth analysis and practice activities, partly freely accessible and partly reserved for teachers.

The book is also available in a digital edition for disabled students and their teachers. The Publishing

House places the PDF files in which the pages of the book are memorized at the disposal of students

who are sightless or partially sighted, physically impaired or with specific learning disorders. The file

format enables the user to enlarge the text characters and to read with screen-reader software.

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2016 Edisco Editrice, Torino

Via Pastrengo 28, 10128 Torino (Italy)

Tel. 011.547880 – Fax 011.5175396

e-mail: [email protected] • sito web: www.edisco.it

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any

form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the

prior permission of the publisher. The purchase of this book neither implies the transfer of the above-

mentioned rights nor annuls them.

All reasonable efforts were made to trace the copyright holders to obtain the relevant permission

to publish texts, illustrations and photographs. Should any rightful copyright holder wish to claim

ownership of the relevant reproduced textual or iconographical material, they are requested to kindly

contact the Publishing House directly. The same applies to any inadvertent omissions, inaccuracies or

errors in the quotation of the sources of passages, illustrations and photographs published in this book.

Printed on behalf of the Publishing House by

Stamperia Artistica Nazionale, Trofarello (TO), Italy

Reprints

5 4 3 2 1 0 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016

Shades and ShapesEditorial realization:

– Project editor: Raffaele Polichetti

– Language and Art consultant: Deborah Rushton

– Graphic Art director: Manuela Piacenti

– Page and layout design: C.G.M. – Napoli

– Quality controller: Lunella Luzi

– Audio recording: Ivano Atzori

3

PRESENTATION

• Shades and Shapes is a book for students at “Liceo Artistico” with its six different

courses:

1. Figurative Arts

2. Architecture and the Environment

3. Design

4. Graphic Arts

5. Audiovisual

and Multimedia

6. Scenography.

The wide range of materials

is meant to provide an

insight into the topics

of the main subjects the

students have to deal with

in the 2nd “Biennio” and 5th

year at B1-B2 levels of the

CEFR.

• Shades and Shapes gives students the opportunity to practise the four

language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) in a structured

and integrated way, through a great variety of authentic or semi-authentic

materials from the Internet, magazines, newspapers and books.

• Shades and Shapes is planned to:

– strengthen cognitive skills necessary for general and detailed comprehension of

subject-related texts;

– develop and practise receptive and productive skills;

– widen students’ vocabulary;

– consolidate and deepen knowledge of useful grammar structures;

– arouse students’ interest in topic-related issues and actively involve them.

Scegliere tra esercizi di varia tipologia: true/false, questionari, tabelle da riempire, esercizi di

abbinamento, ascolto, scrittura, parlato (Pair Work ad es.), un esercizio preso da Grammar.

4

• Shades and Shapes consists of 6 Modules organised in 3 sections:

1. CONTENT-BASED SECTION

It is arranged in Units with texts and activities related to the main “Triennio” curricular

subjects. Each Unit is further divided into Chapters which help students to access the

materials in a structured manner. At the same time, teachers can easily select the topics to

be used in class.

The texts are approached gradually, through Before Reading, While Reading and Vocabulary

activities. Comprehension activities are both about gist and are detail and are based on

written or recorded texts. Some of the activities provided are marked with the symbols PET

and FCE as they have the same format as the real exam tasks.

There are special sections entitled Moving Deeper which explore relevant topics and issues.

Each text is integrated with a rich array of illustrations which often play an active role in

the suggested activities. An extensive glossary is also provided.

to achieve: to succeed in finishing something

altarpiece: artistic work placed on altars

amazed: extremely surprised

exquisite: very beautiful; delicate

fresco: painting on wet plaster (= mixture of sand, lime and water) on a wall or ceiling

to lay (laid, laid): put down

lifelike: appearing real or very similar to reality

outstanding: excellent

prominent: very well known and important

to sketch: to make a simple, quickly-made drawing which does not have many details

GLOSSARY

5

2. REVISION AND PRACTICE SECTION

It focuses on vocabulary, language structures and skills. It is divided into:

– Vocabulary – with activities which provide practise and consolidate relevant terms met

in the Module.

– Grammar – with activities which revise some of the most frequent grammar structures found in the texts treated.

– Communication – with topic-centred activities which give further practice in the four skills.

6

3. CLIL

Language is enriched by exploring non-linguistic subjects through the CLIL approach:

different topics, related to curricular subjects – Literature, History, Philosophy, Mathematics,

Chemistry and Physics – are explored through a Content and Language Integrated Learning

methodology. This is meant to promote cross-curricular learning, teaching and planning,

according to the new guidelines from the Ministry of Education.

– Online Resources available on www.edisco.it with extra Unit-related materials and

activities (several listening exercises can be found here).

– Teacher’s Guide with teaching tips, FCE and CLIL overview, suggestions for further

activities (online resources and sites, movies, books and readers), answer keys to all

the activities, Unit tests, Module tests and “Terza Prova” tests.

– MP3 audio files for the listening activities.

ONLINE RESOURCES

7

CONTENTS

Unit 0 Tools and Rules

A. An introduction to the Visual Arts ................. 12

B. Materials and techniques .................................. 14

C. Colours, space, light and shade ...................... 18

D. Subject and representation .............................. 20

E. How to read an artwork ................................... 22

Unit 1 The Ancient World

A. Prehistory ............................................................... 24

B. Ancient Egypt ....................................................... 26

C. Ancient Greece ..................................................... 28

D. Ancient Rome ....................................................... 32

Unit 2 Medieval Art

A. Early Christian and Byzantine Art .................. 36

B. The Romanesque ................................................. 38

C. The Gothic ............................................................. 40

D. Cimabue, Giotto and Simone Martini .......... 44

Unit 3 Renaissance and Baroque

A. Florence and Humanism ................................... 48

B. Van Eyck and the Flemish painters ................ 52

C. Great Masters ....................................................... 54

D. Renaissance in Europe ....................................... 60

E. Baroque .................................................................. 62

Unit 4 From Neoclassicism to Post-Impressionism

A. The Ideal Beauty .................................................. 66

B. The Romantic Age ............................................. 70

C. Realism and Social Art ...................................... 74

D. Impressionism ....................................................... 78

E. Post-Impressionism ............................................ 82

Unit 5 The Twentieth Century Art

A. Avant-Garde ......................................................... 86

B. Abstraction and Surrealism .............................. 92

C. Post-war Art .......................................................... 96

D. Contemporary Art ............................................... 100

REVISION AND PRACTICEVOCABULARY ...................................................................... 104

GRAMMAR (Main verb tenses) ..................................... 106

COMMUNICATION

Listening (An interview with Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)) ................................... 108

Speaking (You’re spoilt for choice…) .............. 109

Reading (Henry Fuseli: The Nightmare) .......... 110

Writing (The museum experience) ................... 111

CLIL Literature • When Literature meets Art .......... 112

HISTORY OF ART1

MO

DU

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Unit 1 Landscape and the Environment

A. The concept of landscape ................................. 116

B. Green building ...................................................... 120

C. Sustainable architecture .................................... 122

D. Land conservation ............................................... 124

Unit 2 Architecture of the 19th Century

A. The eclectic century ............................................ 126

B. Chicago School of Architecture ...................... 128

C. Art Nouveau in architecture ............................ 130

D. Spanish Modernist movement ........................ 132

Unit 3 The Masters of Modern Architecture

A. From 1900 to 1970 ............................................ 134

B. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) ................... 136

C. Walter Gropius (1883-1969) ........................... 138

D. Le Corbusier (1887-1965) ................................ 140

Unit 4 Contemporary Architecture

A. From 1970s to present ...................................... 142

B. Frank Gehry (1929-) .......................................... 144

C. Norman Foster (1935-) ..................................... 146

D. Renzo Piano (1937-) .......................................... 148

REVISION AND PRACTICE

VOCABULARY ...................................................................... 152

GRAMMAR (Connectors) ................................................ 154

COMMUNICATION

Listening (The eclectic genius of Antoni Gaudí) 156

Speaking (Sightseeing modern architecture) ... 157

Reading (Art Deco in America) ......................... 158

Writing (How to write an application letter) 159

CLIL Maths • Proportions: the golden ratio ............ 160

ARCHITECTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT2

MO

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8

Unit 1 Design is History

A. When was design born? ................................... 164

B. The Arts and Crafts movement ...................... 166

C. Peter Behrens – a founder of industrial design ...................................................................... 168

Unit 2 Design is Technology

A. What is industrial design? ................................ 170

B. The Bauhaus movement ................................... 172

C. American design .................................................. 174

Unit 3 Design is Life

A. The “Made in Italy” ........................................... 176

B. Philippe Starck – a global designer

(1949-) .................................................................... 178

C. Automotive design .............................................. 180

Unit 4 Design is Fashion

A. What is Fashion Design? .................................. 182

B. What does a fashion designer do? ................ 184


VOCABULARY ...................................................................... 186

GRAMMAR (Prefixes and Suffixes) ................................ 188

COMMUNICATION

Listening (Becoming an industrial designer) 190

Speaking (The use of CAD in design) .............. 191

Reading (A beautiful mind: Adriano Olivetti) 192

Writing (The icon of Fashion Design:

Coco Chanel) ......................................................... 193

CLIL Chemistry • Solar textiles .................................. 194

DESIGN 3

MO

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Unit 1 A New Style for a New Culture

A. Art Nouveau style ............................................... 198

B. From Bohemian artists to modern graphic design ...................................................................... 200

Unit 2 Choosing and Using Type

A. Typography: a brief overview ......................... 202

B. Fonts ........................................................................ 204

C. A new typography .............................................. 206

Unit 3 Graphic Design Practice

A. Branding and positioning .................................. 208

B. Branding identity and graphic design ........... 210


GRAMMAR (Articles – Indefinite adjectives and Pronouns – Comparatives and Superlatives) ..... 214

COMMUNICATION

Listening (Graphic design in a digital age) ............ 216

Speaking (Social activism and graphic design) . 217

Reading (Pop Art) ................................................. 218

Writing (Logos and ads) ....................................... 219

CLIL History and Graphic Arts • Design as a social and political commitment: Albe Steiner ......... 220

GRAPHIC ARTS4

MO

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9

Unit 1 The History Behind the Pictures

A. “You push the button and we do all the

rest” ......................................................................... 224

B. Eadweard Muybridge – What’s in a bet ...... 226

C. Photojournalism and its heroes ....................... 228

D. Slightly out of focus ........................................... 232

E. When photographs make things happen ... 236

F. Documenting the bitter years ......................... 238

Unit 2 The Seventh Art

A. Adapting History and Literature into films .. 242

B. What is a logline? ................................................ 244

C. Writing compelling screenplays ...................... 246

D. What a director of photography does .......... 248


GRAMMAR (Compounds) ................................................ 254

COMMUNICATION

Listening (The right soundtrack) ....................... 256

Speaking (Spare the pain, spoil the gain?) ..... 257

Reading (The History Boys) ............................... 258

Writing (How to write a film review) .............. 259

CLIL Physics • What is sound? ................................... 260

5

MO

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AUDIOVISUAL AND MULTIMEDIA

Unit 1 Looking at the Stage

Throughout the Centuries

A. Stage design and scenographic art –

the origins .............................................................. 264

B. Historical interrelation of Architecture

and Scenography ................................................. 266

C. The Elizabethan theatre .................................... 270

Unit 2 Theatre, Performance and Technology

A. What a set designer does ................................. 274

B. Digital Scenography – bringing the theatre into the information age ................................... 276


GRAMMAR (The Passive Voice) ...................................... 280

COMMUNICATION

Listening (An interview with a successful set designer) ........................................................... 282

Speaking (Set designer résumé) ........................ 283

Reading (Scenography and production) .......... 284

Writing (Elizabethan theatre conventions) .... 285

CLIL Philosophy • What is Beauty? ........................... 286

6

MO

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SCENOGRAPHY

MO

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UNIT 0 Tools and RulesA. An introduction to the Visual Arts B. Materials and techniquesC. Colours, space, light and shadeD. Subject and representationE. How to read an artwork

UNIT 1 The Ancient WorldA. Prehistory B. Ancient Egypt C. Ancient GreeceD. Ancient Rome

UNIT 2 Medieval ArtA. Early Christian and Byzantine Art B. The Romanesque C. The Gothic D. Cimabue, Giotto and Simone Martini

UNIT 3 Renaissance and BaroqueA. Florence and Humanism B. Van Eyck and the Flemish paintersC. Great MastersD. Renaissance in EuropeE. Baroque

UNIT 4 From Neoclassicism to Post-Impressionism

A. The Ideal BeautyB. The Romantic Age C. Realism and Social Art D. Impressionism E. Post-Impressionism

UNIT 5 The Twentieth Century ArtA. Avant-GardeB. Abstraction and Surrealism C. Post-war ArtD. Contemporary Art

HISTORY OF ART1

“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes things visible.”

Paul Klee

• Paul Klee (1879-1940) was a

Swiss-German painter, who is

also remembered for his writings

about colour theory. His works

reflected his humour and his

personal perspective. He worked

in many different media often

combining them. He was close to

Wassily Kandinsky with whom he

taught at the Bauhaus School of

Art, Design and Architecture.

Why study this Module?

In this Module you will examine

the History of Art, first learning

what it is and the tools for

understanding it. Then, you will

travel along it, discovering its

roots from the Ancient World to

the age of symbols and stones

– Medieval Art. After that, you

will reach Renaissance and

Baroque, meeting some of the

greatest masters of all time.

Finally, from Neoclassicism to

Post-Impressionism, you will

understand how differently the

same reality can be represented,

to the extent of going beyond it

in the 20th century’s art.

E. M

anet

pai

nti

ng

C.

Monet

in h

is s

tudio

-boat

(1874)

UN

IT

1

12

A. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE VISUAL ARTS

UN

IT

0TOOLS AND RULES

assemblage: the process of joining or putting things together

broad: very wide

craftsman: a person who is skilled

in making objects

to encompass: to include, to embrace

for something’s sake: because of the interest or

value that something has, not because of the advantages it may bring

media: the materials or the forms that an artist uses.

GLOSSARY

“Visual Arts” is a term for a broad

category of art which includes a

number of artistic disciplines. In

general, this expression includes

those artworks created for both

aesthetic reasons (“art for art’s

sake”) and commercial or func-

tional use.

The Visual Arts include the traditional Fine Arts (Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture) as well as

new media and contemporary forms of expression, such as Assemblage, Collage, Conceptual,

Installation, Performance Art and Design (graphic, fashion, scenic, industrial, interior, etc.).

Also Photography and film-based disciplines, like Video Art and Animation, fall within this

broad category of art. Another type is the new Environmental Land Art; finally, Architecture

encompasses both aesthetic design and functional use.

Definitions of art vary over time and from one society to another. Much of what we now study as

Art (medieval manuscript decoration, for example) was not considered art at the time it was made.

The concept of an artist has also changed during the centuries: the idea of a “genius” developed only

during the 14th century; before that, artists were considered as artisans or craftsmen. Therefore, it

is important to underline

that the Visual Arts are

a wide field which is

difficult to reduce to one

definition.

Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the

Mind of Someone Living, 1991, Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York.

Sandro Botticelli, Venus and Mars, 1483 c., National Gallery, London.

In this Unit you will ind a primary introduction to the Visual Arts: what an

artwork is, how it is composed, the main techniques and materials used and the

most important subjects represented during the centuries. By putting all of these

elements together, you will acquire the tools needed to analyse and understand

an artwork.

???

a. ??????????????

13

Say something about your ideas and opinions of art, by answering the following questions.

a. Do you find studying History of Art easy or difficult? Give reasons.

b. How many kinds of art expression are you familiar with?

c. Do you visit art exhibitions? Do you think that it is important to visit

them, in order to learn about art?

d. What characteristics should a work of art have, in order for it to be

considered an artwork?

PET Decide if the following sentences are true or false. T F

a. There are many possible definitions of the Visual Arts.

b. The term Visual Arts is especially related to useful objects.

c. Sculpture is one of the Fine Arts.

d. Architecture has only aesthetic reasons.

e. In the Medieval Age, illuminated manuscripts were not considered art.

f. Before the 14th century, an artist was synonymous of genius.

Now correct the false sentences.

Find and circle the art words hidden in the puzzle choosing from the ones listed below.

V E G N T V S Z L E

T Y L P T L R W K N

N M O O D B B A H I

I M O I L S L R D L

A M N Q B M X D I G

P O E J E C N P G T

D D P R O L O C O H

R C A T H C F E H B

A I H R F R A M E M

G H S A F T I N T N

Now use at least three of these words to describe The Kiss by Gustave Klimt.

1A

1B

2

3

Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1902, Rodin Museum, Paris.

Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1908-1909. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna.

ART

COLOR

PAINT

DRAW

LINE

SHAPE

MOOD

TINT

OILS

FRAME

• Art for art’s sake

ONLINE RESOURCES

m o d u l e 1

14

B. MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES When you approach a work of art for the

first time, one of the most important aspects

to notice is the technique with which it has

been made; that means to recognize the

materials, the tools and the process used to

create the object you are looking at. There

are many reasons why artists choose certain

materials: for their formation, their wealth

and the message they want to transmit to

the onlookers. We can take as an example

the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo

Bernini, where gold rays and a metallic

arrow in the hand of the angel were added

to increase the drama and emphasis of the

episode. However, it is not just a matter of

style: the use of specific types of materials

changes according to the period and to the

geographic locations, for instance, the wood

of altarpieces and crucifixes made in Italy

during the Middle Ages are different from

those used in Northern Europe. Identifying

the materials is also useful to distinguish false

from original, especially for painting, because

modern colours and varnishes do not have the

same chemical composition as the old ones.

Nowadays, the most important instrument to

recognize materials is represented by scientific

analyses, but they must be supported by a

deep knowledge of the history of techniques.

For that reason, it is very helpful to study

the books written by artists that record and

teach the secrets of their art, such as The

Book of Art by Cennino Cennini (from the

first decade of the 15th century). In the past

for each technique there were strict rules

and a limited number of materials: wood,

bronze and marble for statues, metals, gold,

silver, precious stones for goldsmith art, etc.

Since the materials were expensive and the

compositions were very complex, artists used

to spend most time realizing preparatory

drawings before starting the final piece. On

the contrary, from late in the 19th century and

during the 20th century, a new idea of art and

technological development allowed the artists

to use a great variety of materials, including

industrial and ordinary ones.

altarpiece: a painting or other work of art designed to be set above and behind an altar

goldsmith art: the art of making objects from gold and precious metals

to notice: to see or become aware of something or someone

onlooker: someone who watches something that is happening in a public place but is not involved with it

to record: to keep information for the future, by writing it down or storing it on a computer, etc.

tool: a piece of equipment used to make or repair something

varnish: a liquid which protects the surface of wood or paintings

wealth: a large amount of money or valuable possessions that someone has

GLOSSARY

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, 1647-52, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Preparatory drawing for the Last Supper, 1492, Academy of Venice.

TOOLS AND RULES u n i t 0

15

Masaccio, The Tribute Money, 1425, Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.

PET Decide if the following sentences are true (T) of false (F). T F

a. Materials and tools are part of an art technique.

b. To recognize a technique, it is only important to date an object.

c. Every historical period distinguished itself by the use of a particular art technique.

d. Scientific analyses are not enough to recognize a technique.

e. Since the late 19th century artists have stopped using traditional techniques.


Match the tools and the materials in the list with the techniques they are used for. Then decide whether they are two-dimensional or three-dimensional.

brush • paper • camera • mallet • chisel • egg tempera • marble •

stamp • canvas • pencil • plaster • palette • silver • film • wood

TECHNIQUE TOOLS MATERIALSTWO-

DIMENSIONALTHREE-

DIMENSIONAL

Drawing

Goldsmith Art

Mural Painting

Painting

Photography

Sculpture

4A

4B

5

m o d u l e 1

16

Listen and fill in the blanks.

The fresco technique

Fresco is a technique of (1) ............................

executed upon wet plaster, and it can

be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco

mural painting techniques, which are

applied to (2) .................................... plaster.

At first, the wall is covered with a layer

of (3) .................................... material, called

arriccio, then with the intonaco, on which

the sinopia – the (4) ....................................

is realized. In the end, the pigment is

(5) .................................... with water, and

put on the intonaco; as the plaster dries,

the painting becomes an integral part of

the (6) .................................... .

This technique has been used since

antiquity, and the (7) ....................................

examples can be found on the island of (8) .................................... and date back to around

(9) .................................... BCE.

6

Levels of a fresco painting.

Restoration

Finding solutions against the damage of art materials has always been a great issue for artists, patrons

and critics, but the idea of restoration has considerably changed over the centuries. At irst, the aim of

all interventions on ancient works was restoring the original beauty, which very often meant to cover

or to replace ruined parts. Instead, in 20th century, critics and art historians established that the prior-

ity of restoration is the preservation of the original material for the future, following the guidelines of

minimal interventions, reversible methods and full documentation.

For these reasons, the most com-

mon interventions are nowadays

washing, consolidation of bro-

ken elements and integration of

missing parts. Integrations made

by modern restorers should al-

ways be recognizable. One of the

greatest examples of these meth-

ods is the restoration of the Sistine

Chapel frescoes, started in 1980

and completed in 1999.

The restoration of the Sistine Chapel.


17

Look at the images below and for each one choose the material used from the following list.

wax ......................

paper ...................

pencil ..................

rags ......................

oil paint ..............

wood ...................

blankets ..............

bronze ................

plaster .................

acrylic ..................

PAIR WORK. Ask and answer the following questions with a partner.

a. Which piece of art is more realistic and why?

b. Which art work seems to be the most precious?

c. Which is the strangest material for a work of art?

7

8

A. Medardo Rosso, Mother and Child, 1886-1889.

C. RobertRauschenberg,Bed, 1955.

B. Auguste Rodin, Three Shades, 1902.

D. PabloPicasso,

Siphon, Glass, Newspaper and Violin,

1912.

E. Michelangelo Pistoletto,Venus of the Rags, 1967.

m o d u l e 1

18

C. COLOURS, SPACE, LIGHT AND SHADEColours have always been used both to reproduce realistic hues of objects and to suggest a

symbolic meaning. In religious art, for instance, gold represents Heaven, while red symbolizes

the sorrows of martyrs. Colours can also transmit specific states of mind: ‘cool’ colours are

normally associated with negative emotions, like melancholy or sadness, while ‘warm’ colours

with positive ones, like joy or passion.

The basic elements of every palette are primary colours, which are combined to create secondary

colours and tertiary colours (which are the result of the mixing of a primary and secondary

colour). Furthermore, hues can be modified by adding neutral colours.

The composition and the organization of space is an important theme for two-dimensional works. As

with colours, space is not always represented in a realistic way; it may happen for symbolic reasons,

as in religious or celebratory art, where the scale of objects and characters indicate their importance.

In the same way, in modern art, flat spaces are often used to suggest the impression of closure or

anxiety. On the contrary, to

create the illusion of depth,

artists employ mostly the

overlapping of planes and

vanishing points, which are

the points on the horizon

where parallel lines seem to

converge, as shown in the

illustration on the right.

The use of light and shade

is another important way

to define space and the

volume of things. The

position of the light in a

scene underlines the shape

of objects, and the shadow

projected indicates their

presence in space.

Furthermore, light colours

give the impression of

distance, while dark elements seem nearer. Look at the other two illustrations: in the first one,

the faces and the gestures of characters are defined by the light arriving from the left side;

in the second one, as in

most landscapes, we

can see how the closer

elements have more

intense colours, while

they become brighter

as they approach the

horizon.

The vanishing point in a painting (Piero della Francesca,The Flagellation of Christ, c.1453).

Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus, 1601.


19

bright: full of light, luminous

depth: the distance from the top to the bottom of something

flat: level and smooth, with no curved, high, or hollow parts

hue: a particular shade of a colour

overlap: to cover something partly, by going over its edge

GLOSSARY

Canaletto, The Molo looking West, 1730.

Look at the colour wheel: define each colour and then group them in primary, secondary, tertiary, cool and warm colours.

1. ..........................

2. ..........................

3. ..........................

4. ..........................

5. ..........................

6. ..........................

7. ..........................

8. ..........................

9. ..........................

10. ..........................

11. ..........................

12. ..........................

112

11

10

9

87

6

5

4

3

2

PRIMARY: .................................................., .................................................., .................................................. .

SECONDARY: .................................................., .................................................., .................................................. .

TERTIARY: .................................................., .................................................., .................................................. ,

.................................................., .................................................., .................................................. .

WARM: .................................................., .................................................., .................................................. ,

.................................................., .................................................., .................................................. .

COOL: .................................................., .................................................., .................................................. ,

.................................................., .................................................., .................................................. .

Answer the following questions.

a. Which neutral colours are not represented in the wheel?

b. Between violet and yellow, which colour is more appropriate for the dress of a happy girl,

and why?

c. In religious art, why is space often represented in a non-realistic way?

d. What techniques can be used to represent depth in a two-dimensional piece of art?

e. In a landscape, why are elements on the horizon normally lighter?

9

10

m o d u l e 1

20

D. SUBJECT AND REPRESENTATION The term subject in Visual Arts refers to the main idea represented in the artwork. Subjects in

History of Art can be divided essentially into four macro-categories:

• still life – a collection of inanimate objects arranged together in a specific way;

• landscape – natural scenery such as mountains, cliffs, rivers, views, panoramas, etc.;

• portrait – an image of a particular person, animal, or group;

• abstract – a non-representational, non-figurative work of art.

However, from the 20th century on, the idea of the subject itself changes and evolves, but this

will be thoroughly dealt with in Unit 5.

Match each macro-category to the right image.

abstract • landscape • portrait • still life

1. .................................................................................................. 2. .....................................................................

3. ............................................................... 4. .........................................................................................................

Now connect each picture to the right author and title.

a. Caravaggio, Basket of fruit, c. 1599

b. Wassily Kandinsky, On White II, 1923

c. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ville d’Avray, 1867

d. Gilbert Stuart Williamstown, Portrait of George Washington, 1797

11

12


21

Listen and fill in the blanks.

Symbols in art

Symbols have been important to (1) ............................ since the earliest of times. They often represent

an idea or (2) ............................; for example, the colour white usually stands for (3) ............................ .

Because works of art don’t usually include (4) ............................ , symbols are used in order to

tell the viewer a (5) ............................ or even a story. When we look at a (6) ............................, we

may sometimes miss part of its meaning. This is especially true today, as we are not always

aware of (7) ............................ which were understood in the (8) ............................ .

Look at The Blind Girl by John Everett Millais and try to guess the right answer.

1. Why is there a rainbow in the painting?

a. To symbolise rich people.

b. To tell us about the weather.

c. As a symbol of hope.

2. What do the birds symbolise here?

a. Freedom.

b. Warning of death.

c. Messengers of happiness.

3. What does the butterfly on the woman’s veil represent?

a. Poverty.

b. Homelessness.

c. Rebirth.

Now look at the Mérode Altarpiece by Robert Campin and try to match each symbol to the correct meaning.

a. the scroll and the book

b. the lilies

c. the candle

d. the small lions on the bench

e. the arrangements for washing on the back

1. Mary’s virginity

2. The place where the priest washes his hands

during the Mass

3. The Throne of Solomon in the Bible

4. The Old and the New Testament

5. Divine love and eternal light

13

14

15

bench: a long, usually hard seat for two or more people

cliff: a high area of rock with a very steep side, often on a coast

Mass: a religious ceremony in Christian churches

scroll: a long roll of paper with script or similar material

thoroughly: in detail

veil: a piece of thin material worn by women to cover their face or head

GLOSSARY

Robert Campin, Mérode Altarpiece, particular, 1427, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

John Everett Millais, The Blind

girl, 1854-56, Birmingham

Museums and Art Gallery,

Birmingham.

m o d u l e 1

22

E. HOW TO READ AN ARTWORK Formal art analysis involves several steps.

1) Description. A technical description should include:

• artist’s name

• title of work

• type of artwork

• date the artwork was produced

• size and scale of the painting

• subject of the painting (scene)

• objects in the painting

• first impression – the characteristics of the artwork

that first strike you

• art elements: colours, shapes, lines, texture, form,

space, composition

2) Analysis. A deeper examination of how

• technical elements are utilized by the artist

• subject and art elements work together

3) Interpretation. This part is more subjective than the

others. It includes:

• description of what you think the artist is trying to

say through the work of art, its “message”

• description of what the artwork means to you

personally and why

• examination of the reasons why the artist chose

certain techniques, materials and subject matter

• identification of symbols in the artwork.

4) Evaluation. This is a summary to draw conclusions and reach judgments about the artwork.

In this phase it is necessary to evaluate:

• how well the medium relates to the subject matter and purpose of the artwork

• the design quality

• how well the work expresses its subject, idea, or theme

• originality

• comparison – how the work compares with other artworks of a similar kind

• the personal and community response.

In short, these are the questions you have to ask yourself and the actions you have to perform

in order to read an artwork:

1) Description: What objects/characters are in the artwork? How are they placed? What colours

are used? What techniques, medium or media is utilized by the artist?

2) Analysis: Explain what art elements the artist employed in their artwork and then decide

why they used these particular elements. How does the artwork communicate its meaning?

3) Interpretation: Using the information from Description and Analysis, consider the artist’s

intention and the message within their work. How

did they achieve this?

4) Evaluation: In this step you decide if the previous

three steps were used appropriately, creatively,

intelligently, etc. This is where you can make a final

evaluation of the artwork.

achieve: to succeed in finishing something or reaching an aim

strike: to cause someone to have a feeling or idea about something

texture: the characteristic visual and tactile quality of a surface

GLOSSARY

Leonardo Da Vinci, The Lady with an Ermine, 1489-1490, Czartoryski

Museum, Kraków, Poland.


23

Analyze The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh using the four steps explained on the opposite page.

Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Look at The persistence of memory by Salvador Dalì and discuss the following questions with a partner.

a. Using the first two phases of formal art analysis, what can you see in this picture?

b. Imagine you can have a conversation with the artist, think of at least three questions you

would ask him.

c. If you were responsible for creating a new title for this painting, what would it be? Explain

the reasons for your choice.

16

17

Salvador Dalì, The persistence of memory, 1931, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

• Vincent (also known as Starry, Starry Night), song by Don McLean (a tribute to Vincent van Gogh).

ONLINE RESOURCES

86

A. AVANT-GARDE The Avant-garde are a movement of people or works that are experimental or innovative,

particularly with respect to art.

The term first appeared with reference to art in France in the first half of the nineteenth century,

and is usually credited to the influential thinker Henri de Saint-Simon, one of the forerunners

of socialism. He believed in the social power of the arts and saw artists, together with scientists

and industrialists, as the leaders of a new society. The most important artistic movements

categorized as avant-garde are Fauvism, Cubism and Expressionism.

• MATISSE (1869-1954) AND THE FAUVISTSHenri Matisse is often referred to as the “master of colour”. In 1905 he exhibited at the Salon

d’Automne with André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and others. Their works broke with the

tradition of trying to represent the natural world: they used distorted colours and shapes to depict

emotions. Visitors were shocked and the art critic Louis Vauxcelles commented that the artists

painted like wild beasts (“fauves”), giving the new style its name: Fauvism. Matisse became the

recognized leader of this group. Indeed, although intellectually sophisticated, he always emphasized

the importance of instinct and intuition in the production of a work of art. Matisse argued that an

artist did not have complete control over colour and form; instead, colours, shapes and lines would

tell the artist how they might be used and combined.

• GERMAN EXPRESSIONISMExpressionism was a modernist movement origi-

nating in Germany and Austria at the beginning of

the 20th century, especially inspired by Vincent van

Gogh, Edvard Munch, James Ensor and Fauvism.

Expressionist artists try to express the meaning of

emotional experience rather than physical reality.

In order to express emotion, the subjects are often

distorted or exaggerated. At the same time, colours

are often vivid and shocking.

This style was especially represented by the

collective of artists “Die Brücke” formed in Dresden

in 1905. The name Brücke (“bridge”) reflects the

artists’ youthful eagerness to cross over into a new

future. The most well-known members of this

group are Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde.

UN

IT THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ART

5 In the 20th century there was an explosion of new ideas and discoveries. As a result,

the challenges to accepted artistic conventions became even more inevitable, frequent

and revolutionary. From the Avant-garde to Abstraction and Surrealism, crossing Post-

War Art, this Unit will guide you through 20th century art, until the doorway of the

21st century.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Five women on the street, 1913, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany.

87

• PICASSO (1881-1973) AND CUBISMIn 1900, Pablo Picasso moved to Paris, where

he started to paint mournful, elongated sub-

jects inspired by El Greco with the prevalence

of blue – his “Blue Period”. Three years later,

still in Paris, he became part of a circle of writ-

ers, actors, musicians and artists and his palette

turned into pinker tones – his “Rose Period”.

After seeing the work of the Fauvists at the

Salon d’Automne in 1905, the prehistoric Ibe-

rian sculptures at the Louvre and Cézanne, he

began to simplify his figures and faces. His

exploration culminated in Les Demoiselles

d’Avignon, a painting that distorted every-

thing that had previously been valued in a

picture, or composition, and prefigured Cub-

ism. Picasso’s deformation of the women’s

faces in this painting is a famous example of

the influence of primitivism in modern art.

In Cubism, Picasso and Georges Braque (1882-1963) challenged the principles of perspective

that had been practised since the Renaissance, by painting from different angles simultaneously.

Because objects shown at different angles take on geometric shapes, a critic called them “little

cubes”, creating the term Cubism. There were two main types of Cubism:

– Analytical Cubism – in this style, artists analyzed the subject and broke it into different blocks;

– Synthetic Cubism – the second stage of Cubism introduced the idea of adding other materials

in a collage; artists used coloured paper, newspapers and other materials to represent the

different blocks of the subject.

• ITALIAN FUTURISMThe most important Italian avant-garde art movement of the 20th century was Futurism, which

celebrated advanced technology and urban modernity. Devoted to the new, its members wished to

destroy older forms of culture and demonstrate the beauty of modern life – the beauty of the machine,

speed, violence and change. Their enthusiasm for modernity and the machine finally led Futurists to

celebrate the arrival of the First World War and several of them went on to embrace Fascism, making

that movement the only twentieth century avant-garde to have supported far-right politics. The most

important Futurist artists were Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini and Carlo Carrà.


a. In your opinion, what does the term

“avant-garde” refer to?

b. Do you know any artworks by Picasso?

c. Can you name any abstract artists?

d. What is Andy Warhol famous for?

e. What do you think of contemporary art?

Henri Matisse, The dance, 1909, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

credited: to attribute something to somebody

eagerness: enthusiasm

far: (here) extreme

forerunner: something or someone that acts as an earlier, initial model for what will appear in the future

mournful: very sad

palette: a thin board used by artists to mix their paints

GLOSSARY

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

m o d u l e 1

88

Answer the following questions about the Avant-garde.

a. What does the term avant-garde mean?

b. Where and when was the avant-garde

conceived?

c. Who invented this term?

d. What did he mean to say by this term?

Write questions to the following answers about The Joy of Life by Henri Matisse.

a. ...................................................................................................................................................................................

It is a large scale painting: the dimensions are 176.5×240.7 cm.

b. ...................................................................................................................................................................................

Some art historians have speculated that this euphoric scene of The Joy of life is an allegory

of a mythological world.

c. ...................................................................................................................................................................................

The most important peculiarities of this work are the employment of vivid colours and the

distortion of shapes.

d. ...................................................................................................................................................................................

Matisse uses colours to express emotions.

e. ...................................................................................................................................................................................

This painting can easily be compared to Cézanne’s famous Large Bathers, not only for the

similar subject matter but also for the triangular composition.

1

2

Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a dog on a leash, 1912, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA.

Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life, 1905-1906, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA.

TWENTIETH CENTURY ART u n i t 5

89

Identify the main differences between Impressionism and Expressionism by ticking (ü) each feature under the correct art movement.

IMPRESSIONISM EXPRESSIONISM

focused on mood and emotions

focused on composition

neutral colours

bright exaggerated colours

originated in late 1800s

originated in early 1900s

Now complete the following sentence about the main difference between Expressionism and Fauvism.

Where .................................. used colour to express joy, .................................. manipulated it to convey

the darker side of human emotions.

PET Decide if the following sentences about Picasso and Cubism are true or false.

T F

a. The first paintings by Picasso were sad and sorrowful.

b. The term “Pink Period” is not connected with colour.

c. Picasso was not influenced by Matisse’s work.

d. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is a revolutionary painting.

e. Cubism artists repaint the same subject from different angles.

f. The collage of different materials was called Analytical Cubism.


Pablo Picasso, Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper, 1913, Tate Gallery, London.

3A

3B

4A

4B

m o d u l e 1

90

Listen and fill in the gaps of the following text about the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso.

Guernica is one of the world’s (1) .............................. anti-war paintings. It is a very (2) ..............................

work (a mural) which shows the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica in 1937 during

the Spanish Civil War. Picasso does not paint any bombers; instead, he paints their victims.

The (3) .............................. colours of the artwork are black, grey and white.

There is a large, (4) .............................. room with people and animals who are suffering. A bull

stands over a woman crying with a dead child in her arms. A horse falls in (5) ..............................

pain as it dies after being hit by a spear. A (6) .............................. soldier lies under the horse, his

right arm has been cut off, but the hand holds a sword from which a flower grows, expressing

hope. A light bulb shines strongly like an (7) .............................. eye (the Spanish word for “light

bulb” is “bombilla” which sounds like “bomb”). A (8) .............................. figure on the right holds

a lamp which is a symbol of hope. In Guernica light becomes an instrument of violence: the

cone of light in the centre is not meant to illuminate the stage – on the (9) ..............................,

it “tears off” the horse’s legs. The cone also divides the woman (10) .............................. on the

ground, who can only hold up her hand in accusation of this violence.

Fill in the gaps of the following text about The City Rises by Umberto Boccioni, using the following words:

buildings • construction • figures • influences • painting • progress • space • tension

The City Rises is often considered to be the first Futurist (1) ............................... Here, Boccioni

illustrates the (2) ..............................of a modern city. The chaos and movement in the piece

resembles a war scene as indeed war was presented in the Futurist Manifesto as the only means

towards cultural (3) ............................... The large horse races into the foreground while several

workers fight to gain control, indicating (4) .............................. between humans and animals. The

horse and the (5) .............................. are blurred1,communicating rapid movement while other

elements, such as the (6) .............................. in the background, are rendered more realistic. The

work shows (7) .............................. of Cubism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, revealed

in the brushstrokes and fractured representation of (8) ...............................

5

6

1 blurred = unable to be seen clearly

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid.


91

Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 1910, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The angst of life: The scream by Edvard Munch and Self-portrait by Egon Schiele.

Expressionists expressed emotional experience, often focusing their art on angst whether in reaction

to the modern world, to alienation from society, or in the creation of personal identity.

The angst that Expressionism communicated arises from the inability of modern society to meet real

human needs, which are spiritual as well as materialistic. Munch and Schiele expressed their own

vision of angst, each of them in a very personal way.

Edvard Munch, The scream, 1893, National Gallery, Oslo, Norway.Egon Schiele, Self-portrait, 1910, Private collection.

angst: strong anxiety and unhappiness, especially about personal problems

GLOSSARY

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92

B. ABSTRACTION AND SURREALISM ◆ ABSTRACTIONTwo of the main abstract painters of the

20th century are Wassily Kandinsky and

Piet Mondrian. Although they were con-

temporaries and explored similar formal

concepts, they did so, independently of

one another.

• WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944)

Wassily Kandinsky grew up in Russia

where he enjoyed music and learned to

play the piano and the cello. Kandinsky

would remark later that, even as a child, the

colours of nature inspired him. Both music

and colour would have a huge impact on

his art.

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923, Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Kandinsky’s early paintings were heavily

influenced by Impressionist artists as well as

Pointillism and Fauvism. The most famous of

these works is The Blue Rider, which he painted

in 1903, when he was in Munich. The Blue

Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) was also the name of

the group he formed with other artists, such as

August Macke and Franz Marc.

The group’s aim was to express spirituality

through their work.

About 1909, Kandinsky began to think that

painting did not need a particular subject,

but that shapes and colour alone could be

art. Over the next years, he would start to

paint what would become known as abstract

art, of which Kandinsky is considered one of

the founding fathers.

Kandinsky felt that he could express feelings

and music through colour and shapes. The

shapes he was most interested in were the

circle, triangle and the square. He thought the

triangle would cause aggressive feelings, the

square calm feelings, and the circle spiritual

feelings.

From 1914 to 1921, he returned to Russia.

When his art was rejected in his mother

country, he moved back to Germany to teach

at an art school called the Bauhaus. Later, in

1934 he left Germany because of the Nazis

and moved to Paris where he lived until his

death in 1944.

• PIET MONDRIAN (1872-1944)

Piet Mondrian, one of the founders of

the Dutch modern movement De Stijl, is

recognized for the methodical practice by

which he arrived at abstraction. He radically

simplified the elements of his paintings to

reflect what he saw as order.

In some of his best known paintings of

the 1920s, Mondrian reduced his shapes

to lines and rectangles, and his palette to

the fundamental basics of primary colours,

pushing reference of the outside world

toward pure abstraction.

Piet Mondrian, Broadway boogie woogie, 1942-43, Museum of Modern Art, New York.


93

◆ SURREALISMSurrealism grew principally out of the earlier

Dada movement, which, before World War I,

had embraced chaos and the irrational and

rejected traditional artistic values. However,

unlike Dada, Surrealism’s emphasis was not

on negation but on positive expression.

The Surrealist movement was founded in

Paris by the poet and critic André Breton, who

published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924.

Disdaining rationalism and literary realism,

Surrealists believed that the conscious mind

repressed the power of imagination, making

it heavy with taboo.

The work of Sigmund Freud was profoundly

influential for Surrealists, particularly his

book, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899).

Freud legitimized the importance of dreams

and the unconscious as valid revelations of

human emotions and desires.

The major Surrealist painters were Max Ernst, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró.

There were two styles that distinguished

Surrealist painting. Artists such as Dalí and

Magritte painted in a hyper-realistic style in

which objects were depicted in detail and

with the illusion of three-dimensionality,

emphasizing their dream-like quality.

Instead, artists such as Miró and Ernst used

various techniques to create amorphous or

biomorphic non-representational shapes; for

example, collage, frottage (rubbing a pencil

over an irregular, raised surface) or grattage

(scraping dry paint off a canvas).

founding father: a person who starts or develops a new movement, institution or idea

to disdain: to think that someone or something is not good enough to deserve your interest or respect

issue: a subject or problem which

people are thinking and talking about

to question: to contest

something is not good enough to deserve your interest or respect

to rub: to press against something

with a circular or up and down repeated movement

to scrape: to remove an unwanted covering from something, especially using a sharp edge or something rough

GLOSSARY

Joan Mirò, The Hunter (Catalan Landscape), 1924, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a French Dada artist, whose controversial

contribution had a strong inluence on the development of 20th-

century avant-garde art.

In 1913, Duchamp created his irst “ready-made”, the Bicycle Wheel. This was the irst of a limited number of everyday objects

which Duchamp selected, rather than made by hand. In these,

he questioned conventional ideas about the artist’s role in the

creation of art and about original and unique artistic products, he

relected about issues such as the value of art, the market, and the role of the art

gallery. The most famous ready-made was his Fountain, which shocked the American public in 1917

when they saw an ordinary urinal displayed in an art exhibition.

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917, replica 1964, Tate Gallery, London.

m o d u l e 1

94

PET Decide if the following sentences about Wassily Kandinsky are true or false:

T F

a. Music and colour were the main sources of Kandinsky’s art.

b. The Blue Rider was both the name of an artist organization and of a painting.

c. For Kandinsky there was no art without a specific topic to paint.

d. In Kandinsky’s art, shapes and colours communicate emotions.

e. For Kandinsky the square provokes hostile emotions.

f. The Nazi regime appreciated Kandinsky’s art.


Looking at the paintings by Kandinsky and Mondrian, decide if the following characteristics are related to one of the two artists or to both of them.

Wassily Kandinsky, Painting with White Border, 1913, Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Piet Mondrian, Composition With Red, Yellow and Blue, 1937-42, Tate Gallery, London.

a. Abstract art: ........................................................................................................................................................

b. Basic colours: ......................................................................................................................................................

c. Geometric shapes: .............................................................................................................................................

d. Very strict compositional order: .....................................................................................................................

e. Focus on colours, instead of objects or people: .......................................................................................

f. Distinction of landscape elements: ...............................................................................................................

If you were an art curator, which of the two abstract artists would you choose in order to organize an exhibition? Explain the reasons for your choice to your partner.

7A

7B

8

9

Wassily Kandinsky, Yellow-Red-Blue, 1925, Musée National d’Art Moderne,

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.


95

Choose the correct option for each of the following questions about Surrealism.

a. Dadaism was a:

1. very positive movement.

2. movement based on irrational art.

3. synonym of the Surrealist movement.

b. Andrè Breton was:

1. against Surrealism.

2. the creator of Dadaism.

3. the writer of The Surrealist Manifesto.

c. Psychoanalysis

1. was a source of inspiration for Surrealism.

2. was born many years after Surrealism.

3. is not mentioned in the text.

d. The hyper-realistic style in Surrealism

1. recalls the world of dreams.

2. is typical of Ernst’s works.

3. doesn’t care about particulars in depiction.

e. Frottage

1. is the name of an art movement close to Surrealism.

2. was invented by Salvador Dalì.

3. is an art technique for expressionism.

Listen and complete the following text about The Human Condition by René Magritte.

The Human Condition displays an easel1 placed inside a (1) .............................. and in front

of a window. The easel holds an unframed painting of a (2) .............................. that seems in

every detail contiguous with the landscape seen outside the (3) ............................... At first, one

automatically assumes that the painting on the easel

depicts the (4) ..............................of the landscape outside

the window that it hides from view. After a moment’s

(5) .............................., however, one realizes that this

assumption is based upon a false premise: that is that

the (6) .............................. of Magritte’s painting is real, while

the (7) .............................. on the easel is a (8) ..............................

of that reality. In fact, there is no difference between

them. Both are part of the same painting, the same

artistic fabrication. It is perhaps to this repeating cycle,

in which the (9) .............................., even against his will,

sees the one as real and the other as a representation,

that Magritte’s (10) .............................. makes reference.

10

11

Max Ernst, Attirement of the bride, 1940, Guggenheim Foundation, Venice.

René Magritte, The Human Condition, 1933, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

1 easel = a wooden frame, usually with three legs, that holds a picture, especially one which an artist is painting or drawing.

104


1 MO

DU

LE

VOCABULARY

Complete the sentences by using some of the words above.

a. Archaeology is based on the study of ancient ............................ .

b. Classic architectures were characterized by different types of ............................ .

c. Before Christianity was acknowledged as an official religion, most of rituals were set in

............................ .

d. Since early Middle Ages, every cathedral has ended with an ............................ where the altarpiece

was located.

e. Romanesque buildings were supported by heavy ............................ .

f. In Flemish portraiture the subjects were represented surrounded by............................ objects to

show their wealth.

g. Caravaggio distinguished himself for the ............................ of his works of art.

h. In their compositions, Romantic artists gave a great importance to ............................ and

............................ .

i. For centuries, artists and students have copied ancient statues and made ............................

reproductions.

j. Impressionists used ............................ to recreate effects of light in their paintings.

k. Wassily Kandinsky is considered the founder of ............................ Art.

l. Starting from the 1970s many artists, such as Marina Abramovich and Joseph Beuys, used

............................ as a new form of art expression.

Give the opposite of the words below.

a. to accomplish: ...........................................................................................................................................................

b. bold: .............................................................................................................................................................................

c. depth: ..........................................................................................................................................................................

d. to dry out: ..................................................................................................................................................................

e. upright: ........................................................................................................................................................................

f. keen: ............................................................................................................................................................................

g. sharp: ...........................................................................................................................................................................

h. smooth: .......................................................................................................................................................................

1

2

These are some of the key words you have met in this Module.

UNIT 0 • brush – canvas – depth – draw – fresco – goldsmith – hue – light – paint – shape – space

UNIT 1 • cave painting – column – display – marble – relief – ruin – statue – sharp

UNIT 2 • apse – catacomb – cathedral – capital – masonry – manuscript – mosaic – smooth – sketch – vault

UNIT 3 • to accomplish – drapery – engraving – foreground – former – gesture – movement – naturalism – perspective – rationalism

UNIT 4 • beauty – bold – brushstroke – clue – dot – feeling – heroism – imagination – landscape – snapshot

UNIT 5 • abstract – concept – to drip – expression – identity – innovation – installation – modern – optimism – performance

105

R E V I S I O N A N D P R A C T I C E

Complete the following crossword puzzle about Art.

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8

9 10 11

12 13 14

15

16

17 18 19

20

21

ACROSS

1. Large public building where the Romans practised

martial arts.

7. A drawing, a plan to be followed.

9. A quick picture, sometimes used as a model for a more

“finished”piece.

10. Painting done on a wall.

12. What this crossword is about.

13. The opposite of “figurative” in art.

16. Picture of a person.

17. A painter’s workshop.

20. The art of moving to the sound of music.

21. Something that an artist does with a brush.

DOWN

1. Preposition hidden in “master”.

2. Person who knows a great deal about a particular subject, such as antiques.

3. Two letters that often follow a date (example: 1650 _ _)

4. A series of moving pictures, usually shown in a cinema or on television and often telling a story.

5. Water-colours are usually done ...... paper.

6. Artist who works with clay, or stone, or bronze, etc.

8. Places where artworks are presented to the public.

9. Figures in stone, or bronze, for example.

11. Behaviours or opinions that are produced or held with the intention of being different from something else.

14. A type of play about death or suffering with a sad end.

15. The art capital of Britain.

18. This one has nothing to do with art, or do the British have a special art when it comes to making this drink?

19. Instrument used with ink.

3

Marc Chagall, Le paisage bleu, 1949.

106

m o d u l e 1GRAM

MAR

MAIN VERB TENSES

TENSESAFFIRMATIVE

(1ST PERSON SING.)INTERROGATIVE

(2ND PERSON SING.)NEGATIVE

(3RD PERSON SING.)

SIMPLE

PRESENT SIMPLE(base form)

I study Do you study? He does not (doesn’t) study

PAST SIMPLE(past form)

I studied Did you study? He did not (didn’t) study

FUTURE(will + base form)

I will (I’ll) study Will you study? He will not (won’t) study

CONTINUOUS (to be + ing form)

PRESENT CONT.(am/is/are + …ing)

I am (I’m) studying Are you studying? He is not (isn’t) studying

PAST CONT.(was/were + …ing)

I was studying Were you studying? He was not (wasn’t) studying

PERFECT (to have + past participle)

PRESENT PERFECT(have/has + past part.)

I have (I’ve) studied Have you studied? He has not (hasn’t) studied

PAST PERFECT(had + past part.)

I had studied Had you studied? He had not (hadn’t) studied

Remember that:

• The Present Simple is used to express regular routines and habits. It is often used with adverbs of

frequency: always, usually, often, sometimes, occasionally, seldom, rarely, never, etc.

• The Present Continuous is used to talk about things that are happening at the present moment. It

is often used with: now, at the moment, currently, today, etc.

• The Present Perfect is used for something which has happened recently, or at an unspecified point

of time in the past.

• The Past Simple is used to talk about actions that happened at a specific time in the past. You

state when it happened using a time adverb: yesterday, last week/month/year, in 2012, etc.

• The Past Continuous is used for something that was happening at a precise moment in the past. It

is often used to express an interrupted action in progress.

• The Past Perfect is used for an action that finished before another action in the past.

• The Future with ‘will’ is used to make promises and predictions, and to express a decision made

about the future at the moment.

• It is also very common to express Futurity with ‘going to’ and the Present Continuous. The future

with ‘going to’ is used to speak about future intentions; the future with the Present Continuous is

used to speak about arrangements and plans.

107


Complete the sentences with the suggested forms of the verbs in brackets.

a. Traditionally, Fine Arts ............................ (include – Past Simple) drawing, painting and sculpture

especially. Since the 20th century, the concept of Visual Art ............................ (absorb – Present

Perfect) new contemporary art expressions.

b. In September 2015, while archaeologists ............................ (excavate – Past Continuous) near the

Stonehenge area, they ............................ (find – Past Simple) another huge site, called Durrington

Walls.

c. Archaeologists ............................ (still discover – Present Continuous) Greek artworks these days.

d. Medieval art in Europe ............................ (grow – Past Simple) out of the artistic heritage of the

Roman Empire and the iconographic traditions of the early Christian church.

e. Some people ............................ (believe – Present Simple) that Botticelli’s La Primavera

............................ (represent – Present Simple) the coming of spring, or the four seasons.

f. Historians ............................ (learn – Present Perfect) many things about Leonardo da Vinci as an

artist and as an engineer, an inventor and scientist from his notebooks.

g. The name Impressionism ............................ (come – Present Simple) from the title of one of Claude

Monet’s works, which the critic Louis Leroy ............................ (coin – Past Simple) to satirise the

artist.

h. Marilyn Monroe’s myth ............................ (last – Future) forever thanks to Andy Warhol canvases.

Now you decide the suitable tense of the verbs in brackets to complete the sentences.

a. Colours ............................ always ............................ to both reproduce realistic hues of objects and

suggest a symbolic meaning. (be used)

b. The amphitheatre and the baths ............................ a major part in ancient Roman culture and

society. (play)

c. ............................ about Byzantine art before? (you – ever – hear)

d. How ............................ you ............................ the term fresco? (define)

e. During the Renaissance, young and talented artists very often ............................ in wealthy people’s

houses. (live)

f. Constable’s pictures ................................ people’s

favour today, but during his lifetime critics

................................ them particularly.

(enjoy – not appreciate)

g. If I ............................... to Madrid,

I ............................... Reina Sofia Museum,

in order to see Guernica. (go – visit)

h. ............................ art still ............................ new

media and expressions nowadays? (discover)

1

2

108

m o d u l e 1COM

MUNICATION

AN INTERVIEW WITH FRIDA KAHLO (1907-1954)

Linked to art movements such as Surrealism, Primitivism and Magical Realism, Frida Kahlo’s work emerges primarily from both the events of her life and her Mexican heritage. Frida married the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera, who had a great influence on her painting style.

Listen to this interview with Frida Kahlo and write the questions that you hear from the interviewer.

a. ...................................................................................................................................................................................... ?

In 1925 a bus accident left me semi-invalid. I had to stay at the Red Cross Hospital for weeks and

then stay on bed rest at home. I began to paint during my recovery because I was immobilized

and it was all I could really do. I painted my first self-portrait for the boyfriend of the time who

was on the bus with me, but he was soon tired of my illness and moved on from me.

b. ...................................................................................................................................................................................... ?

Oh, God no. At the age of six, I contracted polio. I tried to hide my deformed leg by wrapping it

in bandages. This led to further complications later in life such as spinal malformation.

c. ...................................................................................................................................................................................... ?

One of my most famous works, Broken Column, represents the spinal malformation I was left

with as a result of the polio.

d. ...................................................................................................................................................................................... ?

The pain… the pain of heartbreak, the pain of sickness. I take this pain, I express this pain, and

I change it into something positive and beautiful. In these paintings, I’m free of my suffering. I

try to represent myself much like an animal. Animals can only be true to who they are. That’s

why I so often paint them.

e. ......................................................................................................................................................................................... ?

We married on August 21st, 1929. He encouraged me to continue painting and he introduced

me to people who played a vital role in making my work known and appreciated. Although we

have an affectionate relationship, we both have had many secret affairs. Our marriage has been

tumultuous and painful.

f. ...................................................................................................

As a half-Jewish, Mexican, Communist woman,

I feel a strong sense of support for all these groups.

Many people find it easy to identify with some part

of me. I am brave and I am a fighter for what I

believe in. While I am all of these things, none of

them exclusively defines me. I will, however, fight

for the rights of these people always. I will fight for

the rights of all forever.

1

LISTENING

bed rest: a medical treatment in which a person lies in bed to gain health benefits

heartbreak: a strong feeling of sadness

to wrap: to cover or enclose something with paper, cloth or other material

GLOSSARY

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

109


SPEAKING

YOU’RE SPOILT FOR CHOICE…

Imagine to be the confidential counsellor of a rich patron living in Italy during the 16th century. He would like to enrich and decorate his residence with new paintings and frescos. He can call one or more of the following artists: Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Give your opinions and explain the reasons of your suggestion/s, using the expressions below.

GIVING OPINIONS GIVING REASONS FOR OPINIONS

I think / believe / feel ...Personally, I think / believe / feelIn my opinion / view,It seems to me that ...I’m convinced that ...From my point of view, ...As I see it, ...My opinion / view is that ...

... because ...

... as/since ...

... because of... / owing to ... (+ noun)The main reason why I think that is because ...One of the reasons why I think that is because ...

Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, c. 1482, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks, 1483–1486, Louvre Museum, Paris.

Michelangelo, Tondo Doni, c. 1507, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Raphael, Madonna della Seggiola, 1513-14, Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

110

m o d u l e 1

HENRY FUSELI: THE NIGHTMAREAlthough he painted during the age of the Enlightenment (the so-called “Age of Reason”), the

Swiss-English painter Henry Fuseli chose instead to depict dark, irrational forces in his famous

painting The Nightmare (1781). In this composition, a woman illuminated with white light

stretches across a bed, her arms, neck and head hanging off the end of the mattress. A figure

sits on her chest (maybe a nocturnal demon) while a horse with shining eyes emerges from the

background.

The painting has had many interpretations and is seen as prefiguring late nineteenth-century

psychoanalytic theories regarding dreams and the unconscious (Sigmund Freud kept a

reproduction of the painting on the wall of his apartment in Vienna).

Fuseli’s painting is suggestive but not explicit, leaving open the possibility that the woman is

simply dreaming. Yet, her dream appears to take frightening, physical form in the shapes of the

demon and the horse.

The work A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) defines the word “nightmare”. A mare

or “mara, [is] a spirit that was related to torment or to suffocate sleepers. An oppression in the

night resembling the pressure of weight upon the chest.” Therefore, Fuseli’s painting may in

fact be understood as the physical experience of chest pressure felt during a dream-state.

Through his use of composition and chiaroscuro – the strategic juxtaposition of contrasting light

and shadow – Fuseli underlines the drama and uncertainty of the scene.

The Nightmare became an icon

of Romanticism and a defining

image of Gothic horror, inspiring

the writers Mary Shelley and Edgar

Allan Poe among many others.

READING


a. What are the protagonists of The Nightmare? Can you describe them?

b. Do you think that it is frightening? Why do you think so?

c. What is the word “nightmare” referred to?

d. How is the meaning of this word connected to the painting?

e. Can you describe the use of the light in this painting?

f. This painting was a source of inspiration for several well-known figures: can you name any of

them?

1

chest: the upper front part of the body of humans and some animals, between the stomach and the neck

hanging: suspended from a fixed point

to stretch: to spread over a large area or distance

GLOSSARY

111


THE MUSEUM EXPERIENCEVisitors are an essential component of museums: without them these buildings would only be

warehouses or archives. Understanding visitors is a necessary component for understanding

museums. From the second half of the 20th century, art historians, critics and curators elaborated

several learning theories that have shaped the development of programs and exhibits. Accessibility,

learning styles and the social responsibility of museums are the most important topics of these

studies.

In recent years, many museums have had difficulties with visitations, so they have been forced

to rethink marketing and fundraising. One of the biggest changes in museums is that they are

becoming “communities” instead of places to visit. The change from location to community has

changed the process of stimulating attendance to museums by:

• using social media to build an online community for the museum;

• using online community to drive visitors to museum;

• having in-person events, lectures, music, drinks, films at museum;

• replicating the in-person experience for online visitors who can’t visit the museum;

• museums can now be thought of as “clubs” instead of places.

In addition, to ensure that visitors feel welcome and well-served, many museums require their

employees to attend customer service training and reward good performances with salary raises.

The text above contains about 200 words; reduce it by one half by eliminating those words, phrases or sentences that do not supply essential information.

Write a short text describing your last visit to a museum. Say what you liked and what you did not like in your visit. Focus on the reasons why you chose the museum, the information you had before visiting, the display of works of art and the visitor services. Write at least 200 words.

1

2

WRITING

Thomas Struth, Louvre 4,

Paris, 1989.

CLIL

CLIL

CLIL

112

Through the 20th century, art became one of the main themes of historical fiction and inspired

several famous novelists. Among them, two women from different periods and with different

approaches emerged: Gertrude Stein and Tracy Chevalier.

Gertrude Stein and the modern art

Gertrude Stein was an American writer of novels, poetry and plays. She moved to Paris in

1903, and made France her home for the rest of her life. As a literary innovator, Stein’s work

broke with the narrative, linear and temporal conventions of the 19th century. From 1903 until

1914, Gertrude and her brother, Leo, lived near the Luxembourg Gardens on the Left Bank

of Paris, where they accumulated a great collection of works of Modern Art. In 1906, Picasso

made a portrait of Gertrude Stein; when someone commented that she didn’t look like her

portrait, Picasso replied, “she will”. This quotation, as many others about modern artists

living in Paris in those years, is reported in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, published

in 1933. It was a kind of chronicle of her Paris years, written in the voice of Toklas, her

life partner. In spite of her usual complex and

hermetic writing, for this book Gertrude used

an accessible style in order to appeal to a wider

audience. Effectively, the book became a literary

bestseller, and, in 1998, Modern Library ranked

it as one of the 20 greatest English-language non-

fiction books of the 20th century.

Being based on direct experience, the book has

been also used as a reference in studying the

development of Modern Art. Gertrude Stein often

underlined her important role as illuminated

art collector, as we can read in one of the most

interesting parts of the book:

It is very difficult now that everybody is accustomed to

everything to give some idea of the kind of uneasiness

one felt when one first looked at all these pictures on

these walls. In those days, there were picture of all

kinds there, the time had not yet come when there

were only Cézannes, Renoirs, Matisses and Picassos,

nor as it was even later only Cézannes and Picassos”1.

Tracy Chevalier: Girl with a Pearl EarringTracy Chevalier was born on October 19th, 1962, in Washington, D.C. She is an American-

British historical novelist who has written seven novels until now. Tracy Chevalier pulls stories

from paintings and historical episodes, finding the human side behind opaque images.

Her most famous novel, entitled Girl with a Pearl Earring, was published in 1999. The work,

which was based on the famous painting by Jan Vermeer (1665), has been translated into 38

languages. In 2003, a film based on the novel, starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth, was

realized and received three Academy Award nominations in 2004, along with two Golden Globes.

1. Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Harcourt, Brace and Company, United States,

1933.

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1906, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

LITERATURE

WHEN LITERATURE MEETS ART

C L I L

113

Observing the painting, Chevalier notes that the “ambiguous look” on the girl’s face left the “most

lasting impression” on her. She describes the girl’s expression “to be a mass of contradictions:

innocent yet experienced, joyous yet sad, full of desire and yet full of loss.” She began to think

that the girl had directed all these emotions to the painter, and began to think of the “story

behind that look”. Rather than writing a story of Vermeer having an illicit relationship with

a domestic, Chevalier builds tension with the depiction of their restraint. As Time magazine

critic Sam Sheppard writes, Chevalier presents “an exquisitely exercise that illustrates how

temptation is controlled for the sake of art”.

Chevalier’s research included reading the history of the period, studying the paintings of Vermeer

and his colleagues and spending several days in the Netherlands.

accustomed to: familiar with.

lasting: continuing to exist for a long time or forever.

loss: when you no longer have something or have less of something.

quotation: a phrase or short piece of writing taken from a longer work of literature, poetry, etc.

restraint: calm and controlled behaviour.

starring: if a film, play, etc. stars someone, or if someone stars in a film, play, etc., they are the main actor in it.

uneasiness: anxiety.

GLOSSARY

Answer the following questions about Gertrude Stein.

a. Where did Gertrude Stein live for most of her life?

b. Who helped her collect modern art works?

c. Why was Stein’s collection so significant?

d. Who was Alice Toklas?

e. What distinguishes The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas from other Gertrude Stein’s writings?

f. Why has this book become so famous?

Decide if the following sentences about Tracy Chevalier and the novel Girl with a Pearl Earring are true or false and then correct the false sentences.

T F

a. The novel Girl with a Pearl Earring is based on a painting of the 18th century.

b. Readers from almost all over the world can enjoy Girl with a Pearl Earring.

c. Scarlett Johansson is the protagonist of the film Girl with a Pearl Earring.

d. The expression of the girl in the painting is vacuous.

e. The protagonists of the novel started a secret relation.

f. Tracy Chevalier made deep investigation in order to be accurate in her description.

1

2

Scarlett Johansson in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003).

Shades and Shapes is designed for students who have already taken

an elementary English course and study in the field of Visual Arts.

The wide range of materials in this book aims to provide an insight

into the typical topics students meet in their studies at different levels

of the CEFR (from B1 up to B2).

Shades and Shapes is planned to:

• strengthen cognitive skills necessary for general and detailed

comprehension of subject-related texts;

• develop and practise receptive and productive skills;

• widen students’ vocabulary;

• consolidate and deepen knowledge of useful grammar structures;

• arouse students’ interest in topic-related issues and actively

involve them.

Shades and Shapes consists of 6 Modules organised in three sections:

1. Content-based section. It is arranged in Units divided into various,

brief Chapters with texts and activities related to the main curricular

subjects.

2. Revision and Practice. It focuses on thematic vocabulary, recurrent

language structures and the four skills.

3. CLIL. Different topics, related to curricular subjects (History,

Literature, Philosophy, Maths, Chemistry, Physics), are explored

through a Content and Language Integrated Learning approach.

NLINE RESOURCES • Teacher’s Guide • mp3 audio file • Further Activities

Documents

English for the Visual Arts, Design and Architecture · 2016. 11. 10. · 3 PRESENTATION • Shades and Shapes is a book for students at “Liceo Artistico” with its six different