Velazquez; Madrid; Seville; Philip; Mediterranean; crown; Order; Santiago; Chamberlain; Arachne; Goya; Manet
Notes
Triumph of Bacchus – «Вакх»
Surrender of Breda – «Сдача Бреды»
The Weavers – «Пряхи»
Las Meninas – «Менины»
Tasks
I. Read the text. Make sure you understand it. Mark the following statements true or false
1. For twenty years Velazquez painted King Philip iv and members of the royal family and court.
2. Velazquez adopted the characteristic machinery of allegorical figures, utilized by most Catholic painters of the seventeenth century.
3. Velazquez's Triumph of Bacchus contains numerous reminiscences of the Nertherlandish masters.
4. The Surrender of Breda is a work of universal importance.
5. In The Weavers the central scene is depicted in the foreground.
6. In Las Meninas Velazquez shows the nobility of his art.
II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?
1. Where was Velazquez trained? What position did he obtain at the court?
2. Whose works did Velazquez distaste and whose paintings did he admire? What did Caravaggesques realism mean to Velazquez?
3. What did Velazquez depict in the Triumph of Bacchus? What shows that Velazquez is a Mediterranean painter?
4. What is pictured in the Surrender of Breda? In what way does it differ from other pictures of this kind?
5. What makes The Weavers Velazquez's most complex allegorical painting? What legend was the basis of this work of art?
6. What does Las Meninas portray? What makes Las Meninas Velazquez's masterpiece? What are the figures depicted in this picture doing? What is Las Meninas (a group portrait, a self-portrait or a genre painting)?
III. I. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases:
to be appointed court painter; to settle permanently in; royal household; to get the rank of; Court Chamberlain; a residence attached to the palace; members of the royal family and court; the integrity of one's style; the characteristic devices; allegorical figures; to be attached to nature; freedom of the brush; throughout the life; principles of composition; Caravaggesques realism; numerous reminiscences; a Mediterranean painter; to fall under the influence of; the studio in the royal palace; to work upon a canvas; to create the illusion of form unique in scale; to pay the painter a visit; dwarfs; to honour the painter with the presence; informality of the subject; interlocking pyramids.
II. Give English equivalents of the following phrases:
