Lesson 1
Grammar Practice
Ресурс Grammar
1. The Present Continuous Tense. Г.В.Верба, Л.Г. Верба. Граматика сучасної
англійської мови. pp. 25-28
2. Exercises: Г.В.Верба, Л.Г. Верба. Граматика сучасної англійської мови. Ex. 66-71,
pp.244-245.
Vocabulary Practice
1. Read and translate the text.
2. Learn the unknown words.
ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS
London's public art galleries include the National gallery, the National portrait Gallery, the Tate
Gallery and the Wallace Collection. Art exhibits are held at the Royal Academy of Arts and at
the Hayward Gallery.
The National Gallery houses are one of the finest collections of masterpieces in the world. In
1824 the government bought the collection of pictures accumulated by John J. Angerstein. The
specially built gallery in Trafalgar Square was opened in 1838. It was visited by newly crowned
Queen Victoria. The main collection of more than 2,000 pictures is arranged chronologically in 4
wings. Sainsbury Wing /1260-1510/, West Wing /1510-1600/, North Wing /1600-1700/, and
East Wing /1700-1920/. Italian painting includes works by Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci.
Paintings of the Dutch and Flemish schools include the works of Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van
Dyck. French and Spanish paintings include works by Velazquez and Goya, Manet and Renoir.
British paintings include selection from Hogarth to Turner. There are Gainsborough's
superb Mr. and Mrs. Andrews and Constable's famous Haywain. Admission is free.
The National Portrait Gallery includes pictures of historical personalities, sculpture,
miniatures, engravings and photographs. It was established in 1856 with the aim of illustrating
British history. The Gallery does not display portraits of living persons, apart from members of
the royal family. Items in their historical context accompany the portraits.
The Tate Gallery houses the national collection of British works of the 16-20th cc. Sir Henry,
Tate, the sugar magnate, offered to finance the building of a new gallery. He donated his own
collection of 64 paintings. The British works begin with Man in a Black Cap pained by John
Bettes in 1545. Hogarth, Blake, Turner and Constable are particularly well represented. There is
a collection of kinetic and optical art.
The British Museum is one of the most famous museums in the world. It was founded in 1753
by an Act of Parliament. It houses a collection of ancient civilizations and 15-million-volume
national library. In 1973 the library became part of the newly formed British Library. There are
many giant statues in the Museum. The Museum is famous for Egyptian mummies of kings and
queens. In Room 25 there is the Rosetta Stone, which was the key to understanding Egyptian
picture writing, hieroglyphs. The writing tells of battles of the time. Free introductory tours
include The World of Asia, Europe, The Ancient Near East, Early Egypt and Nubia, and
Treasures of the Islamic World. Admission is free although donations are welcome.
The Victoria and Albert Museum / V & A/ has the largest collection of decorative art. The
English costumes dating from the 16th century are displayed here. The oldest is a boy's shirt from
the 1540's. There are also outstanding landscapes of John Constable and English and Continental
sculpture. There is a special collection of tiny miniature portraits. The Great Bed of Ware was
made of oak in 1580 is kept at V & A. It is big enough to hold 8 people. The people who slept in
it, by tradition carved their names on it.
The Louvre, national art museum of France and the palace in which it is housed, located
in Paris, on the right bank of the Seine River. The structure, until 1682 a residence of the kings
of France, is one of the largest palaces in the world. It occupies the site of a 13th-century
fortress. In 1793 the Louvre was opened as a public museum, and the French painter JacquesLouis David was appointed head of a commission to administer it. In 1848 it became the
property of the state.
The nucleus of the Louvre collections is the group of Italian Renaissance paintings—among
them several by Leonardo da Vinci—which were owned by Francis I, a collector and patron of
note. Among its greatest treasures are two of the most famous sculptures of the ancient world,
the Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo, and Leonardo's famous portrait, Mona
Lisa. The Louvre also holds works by the other Italian masters Raphael and Titian and paintings
by the northern artists Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt. Protection of all the Louvre's priceless
masterpieces during the two world wars was effected by their removal to secret depositories
outside Paris.
The Prado, art museum located in Madrid, Spain. Also called the National Museum of Painting
and Sculpture, the Prado houses nearly 3000 paintings and many other sculptures, drawings, and
pieces of furniture and decorative art.
The collection consists mainly of works added to the Spanish royal collection from the 16th
century to the early 19th century. Artists from countries that were friendly
with Spain contributed to the royal collection, so many outstanding examples of the Italian and
Flemish schools of painting are represented. Of particular note is a series of paintings by Titian
commissioned by Charles V and Philip II in the 16th century, and a series painted by Rubens for
Philip IV in the early 17th century. In addition, the Prado houses an outstanding collection of
paintings from the Spanish school, including works by Goya and El Greco.
The Prado was founded in 1810 by King Fernando VII at the initiative of his wife, Doсa Isabel
of Braganza. The original building, a great work of neoclassical architecture by the Spanish
architect D. Juan de Villanueva, has had several extensions added to it during the 20th century.
Today the collection is divided between the Villanueva building, which houses paintings from
the Middle Ages to the 19th century, and the Casуn del Buen Retins, which houses 19th century
works formerly displayed in the Prado and the Modern Art Museum.
State Hermitage Museum, museum of art in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Hermitage is the
largest public museum in Russia and home to one of the greatest art collections in the world.
Russian Empress Catherine the Great founded the Hermitage in 1764 as a museum for the royal
court. The holdings originally consisted of Western European works of art that she purchased
from private collections. These were housed in a private gallery called the Small Hermitage that
was connected to the Winter Palace, the vast, ornate winter home of the Russian tzars. The tzars
who succeeded Catherine substantially increased the collections, which expanded into the Old
Hermitage, another private gallery adjoining the Winter Palace. The buildings comprising the
Hermitage were rebuilt after a fire in the Winter Palace in 1837. The museum opened to the
public in 1852 and became public property known as the State Hermitage Museum in 1917,
following the Russian Revolution.
The collections are now housed in five magnificent interconnected buildings, including
the Winter Palace. The lavish exteriors and interiors of these buildings are of architectural and
historical importance in themselves. They provide a rich setting for collections that cover
virtually every aspect of the fine arts, from classical antiquity to 20th-century painting. The
collection also includes examples of Russian art, artifacts from non-Western cultures, Oriental
art, coins, and jewelry.
The Hermitage’s collection of Western European art is particularly strong in Italian, Spanish,
Flemish, and Dutch paintings and includes major works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,
Giorgione, Caravaggio, El Greco, Rembrandt, and Peter Paul Rubens. The Schukin and Morozov
Collections of impressionist, postimpressionist, and modern paintings contain many of the finest
works by Henri Matisse, as well as major paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Henri
Rousseau, and Pablo Picasso.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, art museum in New York City, one of the largest museums in
the world. Founded in 1870 by a group of public figures, philanthropists, and artists, the museum
has occupied its current location in New York City's Central Park since 1880 in buildings
designed by the American architect Richard Morris Hunt.
The museum's collections, among the finest in the world, are divided into 18 curatorial
departments. Each department is responsible for the acquisition, preservation, and exhibition of
its works. A description of each department follows.