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39
a. Henry IV Receiving the Portrait of Maria de' Medici
b. Raising of the Cross
c. Garden of Love
d. Fall of the Damned
V. Translate the text into English.
Питер Паул Рубенс, крупнейший фламандский художник XVII в., был одним из самых
образованных людей своего времени. Первые годы своей творческой жизни Рубенс провел в
Италии. В Венеции он изучал работы Тициана, в Риме - произведения Микеланджело. В
Италии Рубенс быстро стал знаменитым. С 1601 г. он - придворный художник герцога Гон-
зага в Мантуе. В 1608 г. Рубенс вернулся на родину во Фландрию. Он много работал над
монументальными произведениями. На одном из них - алтарном образе "Воздвижение
креста" - изображен распятый Христос. В 1621-1625 гг. Рубенс получил заказ на цикл из 21
картины "Жизнь Марии Медичи" от французской королевы, вдовы Генриха IV, для
украшения Люксембургского дворца. Это - блистательное творение монументально-
декоративного искусства. Здесь наряду с аллегорическими образами и мифологическими
персонажами Рубенс изобразил реальные исторические лица.
Искусство Рубенса - типичное выражение барокко. Художник часто писал картины на
сюжеты античных мифов. Рубенс оказал большое влияние на последующее развитие
западноевропейского искусства.
VI. Summarize the text.
VII. Topics for discussion.
1. Rubens's mode of life and production system.
2. Rubens's style and characters.
3. Rubens as a Baroque painter.
UNIT XIII VELAZQUEZ (1599-1660)
Diego Rodriguez de Silva у Velazquez was the greatest Spanish painter. Born in Seville,
Velazquez studied with the local Mannerist Francisco Pacheco. In 1623 Velazquez was appointed
court painter and settled permanently in Madrid. By 1627 he was established in the royal household
and got the rank of court chamberlain. It gave him a residence attached to the palace and a studio
inside it. For more than 30 years Velazquez painted King Philip IV and members of the royal
family and court, produced historical, mythological, and religious pictures. His paintings were
influenced by Rubens and the Venetian artists.
Velazquez never deserted the integrity of his own style. He did not adopt the characteristic
devices of allegorical figures, columns, curtains of boiling clouds utilized by most Catholic painters
of the seventeenth century. Velazquez was attached to nature.
He visited Italy twice and expressed a frank dislike for Raphael and thus for the Italian
idealism. Velazquez admired Titian and copied Tintoretto as an exercise in freedom of the brush.
Throughout his life Velazquez was deeply concerned with the principles of composition and design.
When Caravaggesques realism penetrated Spain, it was felt by the young Velazquez as a
liberation. Velazquez's interpretation of this movement was original. His Triumph of Bacchus, of
about 1628, contains numerous reminiscences of Titian's Bacchanal of the Andrians, reinterpreted
in basically Caravaggesques terms. Bacchus is a rather soft Spanish youth, with a towel and a cloak
around his waist, as if he had just climbed out of a neighbouring stream. Crowned with wine leaves
himself he mischievously puts a crown upon a kneeling worshiper, who is a simple Spanish peasant.
Other peasants are gathered around. One peasant with bristling moustache and a hat pushed back
hands a cup of wine toward a spectator, while another tries to grab it. The proletarian invitation to
join in the delights of wine is painted with a brilliance unequalled by any other Latin painter of the
seventeenth century. Yet the emphasis of the solidity of flesh and rough clothing shows that
Velazquez is a Mediterranean painter.
The Surrender of Breda, of 1635, is a magnificent painting. It is remarkable for its excellent
equilibrium. The groups of Spanish victors and defeated Dutchmen are scrupulously equalized. The