Ask an art historian about 15th-century Italian art and they’ll probably bring up Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper or the early career works of Michelangelo. Meanwhile, assessments of the Florentine sculptor Donatello often pale in comparison with praise of his superstar contemporaries. Donatello deserves better, argues an ambitious new exhibition. On view through July 31 at two museums in Florence, Italy, “Donatello: The Renaissance” tries to place the sculptor at the center of the era, writes reporter Elisabetta Povoledo for The NewYork Times.
“This is an extremely unusual exhibit, since Donatello is a father of the Renaissance,” Donatello scholar Francesco Caglioti tells The Times. Arturo Galansino, director of the Palazzo Strozzi, takes the argument one step further, telling The Wall Street Journal’s J. S. Marcus that the exhibition identifies Donatello as “the inventor of the Renaissance.”
Donatello’s masterpieces we repaired with works by Filippo Brunelleschi, Giovanni Bellini, Michelangelo and Raphael to showcase his significant impact on generations of Italian artists. “Some exhibitions are once in a lifetime, but this show is the first time in history,” said Galansino earlier this month.
While some people think of Michelangelo’s marble (大理石) David (1501―1504) as an incomparable work, Donatello actually sculpted one of the statue’s key inspirations: a bronze (青铜) David. Created between 1435 and 1450, likely for the Medici family, the sculpture was conceived (构思) independently of any architectural surroundings. Scholars, therefore, consider Donatello’s David the first of such a style in Renaissance history.
Besides, Donatello’s Madonna influenced similar works by Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Just as Donatello has been relatively overlooked in favor of his contemporaries, Gentileschi and a handful of other Renaissance women artists are just starting to get their due—a trend evidenced by a recent exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
“Donatello: The Renaissanc” follows the artist’s life and work, moving through his early years in his native city and a long-term residency in Padua. By the end of his life, Donatello’s work was primarily financed by the powerful Medici family.
1. What does the new exhibition intend to do?| A．Restress Leonardo da Vinci’s achievements. |
| B．Retell the stories of artists in the Renaissance. |
| C．Rediscover Italian art in the contemporary context. |
| D．Rethink the key role Donatello played in his time. |
| A．It is historically significant. | B．It is more comprehensive than others. |
| C．It has met with lots of criticism. | D．It has presented a completely new art form. |
| A．It disappointed the Medici family. | B．It was a copy of the marble David |
| C．It was created two hundred years ago. | D．It inspired Michelangelo to some extent. |
| A．Fall into disfavor. | B．Receive recognition. |
| C．Reshape their styles. | D．Suffer discrimination. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Educators and business leaders have more in common than it may seem. Teachers want to prepare students for a successful future. Technology companies have an interest in developing a workforce with the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills needed to grow the company and advance the industry. How can they work together to achieve these goals? Play may be the answer.
Focusing on STEM skills is important, but the reality is that STEM skills are enhanced and more relevant when combined with traditional, hands-on creative activities. This combination is proving to be the best way to prepare today’s children to be the makers and builders of tomorrow. That is why technology companies are partnering with educators to bring back good, old-fashioned play.
In fact many experts argue that the most important 21st-century skills aren’t related to specific technologies or subject matter, but to creativity; skills like imagination, problem-finding and problem-solving, teamwork, optimism, patience and the ability to experiment and take risks. These are skills acquired when kids tinker (鼓捣小玩意). High-tech industries such as NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that their best overall problem solvers were master tinkerers in their youth.
There are cognitive (认知的) benefits of doing things the way we did as children — building something, tearing it down, then building it up again. Research shows that given 15 minutes of free play, four and five-year-olds will spend a third of this time engaged in spatial (空间的), mathematical, and architectural activities. This type of play — especially with building blocks — helps children discover and develop key principles in math and geometry.
If play and building are critical to 21st-century skill development, that’s really good news for two reasons: Children are born builders, makers, and creators, so fostering(培养)21st-century skills may be as simple as giving kids room to play, tinker and try things out, even as they grow older. Secondly, it doesn’t take 21st-century technology to foster 21st-century skills. This is especially important for under-resourced schools and communities. Taking whatever materials are handy and tinkering with them is a simple way to engage those important “maker” skills. And anyone, anywhere, can do it.
1. What does the author say about educators?| A．They seek advice from technology companies to achieve teaching goals. |
| B．They have been successful in preparing the workforce for companies. |
| C．They help students acquire the skills needed for their future success. |
| D．They partner with technology companies to enhance teaching efficiency. |
| A．by blending (混合) them with traditional, stimulating activities. |
| B．By inviting business leaders to help design curriculums. |
| C．By enhancing students’ ability to think in a critical way. |
| D．By showing students the best way to learn is through play. |
| A．By engaging in activities involving specific technologies. |
| B．By playing with things to solve problems on their own. |
| C．By familiarizing themselves with high-tech gadgets (小器具). |
| D．By mastering basic principles through teamwork. |
| A．Stimulate their interest as early as possible. |
| B．Spend more time playing games with them. |
| C．Encourage them to make things with hands. |
| D．Allow them to thinker freely with calculators. |
【推荐2】On a September afternoon in 1940, four teenage boys made their way through the woods on a hill overlooking Montignac in southwestern France. They had come to explore a dark, deep hole said to be an underground passage to the nearby manor（庄园）of Lascaux. Squeezing through the entrance one by one, they soon saw wonderfully lifelike paintings of running horses, swimming deer, wounded wild oxen, and other beings—works of art that may be up to 20,000 years old.
The collection of paintings in Lascaux is among some 150 prehistoric sites dating from the Paleolithic period（旧石器时代）that have been documented in France's Vezere Valley. This corner of southwestern Europe seems to have been a hot spot for figurative art. The biggest discovery since Lascaux occurred in December 1994, when three cave explorers laid eyes on artworks that had not been seen since a rockslide 22,000 years ago closed off a large deep cave in southern France. Here, by unsteadily shining firelight, prehistoric artists drew outlines of cave lions, herds of rhinos（犀牛）and magnificent wild oxen, horses, cave bears. In all, the artists drew 442 animals over perhaps thousands of years, using nearly 400,000 square feet of cave surface as their canvas（画布）. The site, now known as Chauvet-Pont-1'Arc Cave, is sometimes considered the Sistine Chapel of prehistory.
For decades scholars had theorized that art had advanced in slow stages from ancient scratchings to lively, naturalistic interpretation. Surely the delicate shading and elegant lines of Chauvet's masterworks placed them at the top of that progression. Then carbon dates came in, and prehistorians felt shocked. At some 36,000 years old—nearly twice as old as those in Lascaux—Chauvet's images represented not the peak of prehistoric art but its earliest known beginnings.
The search for the world's oldest cave paintings continues. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, for example, scientists found a large room of paintings of part-human, part-animal beings that are estimated to be 44,000 years old, older than any figurative art seen in Europe.
Scholars don't know if art was invented many times over or if it was a skill developed early in our evolution. What we do know is that artistic expression runs deep in our ancestry.
1. According to the passage, where did the boys find the paintings?| A．In the woods on a hill | B．In a deep cave in France. |
| C．In a manor of Lascaux. | D．On an Indonesian island |
| A．conveys concepts by using accurate numbers and forms |
| B．makes stories in contrast to scientific subjects |
| C．represents persons or things in a realistic way |
| D．expresses ideas or feelings by using shapes and patterns |
| A．the Chauvet's paintings had been sealed by a rockslide until 1994 |
| B．the style of Chauvet's paintings is similar to that of the Sistine Chapel |
| C．Chauvet's images are the earliest figurative paintings that have been found |
| D．the main objects of Chauvet's images are part-human, part-animal beings |
| A．Value of Paleolithic Artwork | B．Preservation of Figurative Art |
| C．Artistic Expressions of Nature | D．Searches for Cave Paintings |
【推荐3】Tao Yuanming and Henry David Thoreau were both poets, but one lived in Ancient China and the other in 19th century America. Superficially, these two men, whose lives were separated in time by nearly 1,500 years, were polar opposites. And yet they shared an intense respect for nature, which made them each an influential figure of their time.
Both men made dramatic transformations to their lives in order to reconnect with nature. As an official in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao felt conflicted over life at court. In 405, he quit the service of the court for good, expressing his unhappiness in the now famous line that he would not “bow like a servant in return for five dou of grain”. He spent the next 22 years until his death, working the land in a poor, rural area. From his poetry, we can learn that although his life was arduous, he succeeded in finding contentment in its simplicity and in drawing pleasure from nature.
While Tao’s return to nature was a reaction to a lifestyle he was opposed to, Thoreau’s was a personal decision to transform the way he lived. He had a decent quality of life, but he wanted to live in a simpler way. For two years, two months and two days, he lived in a cottage in the forest on the edge of Walden Pond, focusing on himself and his writing. He explained his reason for doing so in Walden: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Both men were happy to withdraw from contemporary life, seeking a harmonious relationship with nature in the quietness of their lives.
Although Tao and Thoreau do not treat nature in quite the same way, their works show its beauty and value. Tao’s nature is a place of fields and villages, in other words, rural, and his animals are domestic ones, such as chickens and dogs. The calm and peaceful life he wrote about is in contrast to and critical of the depressive court life.
Thoreau’s descriptions of nature emphasized the beauty and purity of the wild areas around him. Devoting himself to observations of the natural phenomena, he recorded his detailed findings in his journals. Thoreau’s writing aimed to convince people that animals and plants had a right to live and prosper, as we do. We should live with them in harmony and enjoy nature’s gifts.
It takes considerable courage to reject the easy and familiar and instead try to live closer to nature, as both Tao and Thoreau did. Their choices led them to quiet and reflective lives with fewer material desires. In today’s modern world, their ideas about living simply and being at ease with nature may take us a step closer to attaining personal well-being and fulfillment.
1. Why did Tao Yuanming leave the court?| A．Because he was too old. |
| B．Because he felt conflicted over life at court. |
| C．Because he liked nature so much. |
| D．Because he liked living in a rural area. |
| A．They treated nature in the same way. |
| B．They lived in the same century. |
| C．They were both unsatisfied with their leaders. |
| D．Their works showed the beauty of nature. |
| A．Fields and villages. | B．Chickens and dogs. |
| C．Animals and plants. | D．Mountains and rivers. |
| A．Nature’s wilderness is beautiful. | B．We should raise more animals. |
| C．Man should live in harmony with nature. | D．we should live in the rural area. |
| A．Live closer to nature. | B．Increase material desires. |
| C．Walk a lot in the forest. | D．Share a respect for nature. |
【推荐1】Leonardo da Vinci is often thought of mainly as an artist, with world-famous works like The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa.
Born in 1452 to a Florentine lawyer and a local village girl, Leonardo was given only a very basic education. After ten years in the workshop of the artist Verrocchio, he began to work for himself. The work he did shows an unbelievable combination of technical skill and very careful observation.
At the age of thirty, he left his hometown and moved to Milan, where he spent seventeen years working for the Duke of Milan.
In 1506 he returned to Milan and became increasingly interested in science.
| A．Before long, he returned to his painting. |
| B．Of course, his place in art history is certain. |
| C．It also shows his great interest in technology. |
| D．The notebooks are full of drawings for all kinds of inventions. |
| E．He began to study human bodies and the movement of the blood. |
| F．Here he continued to combine his scientific work with his painting. |
| G．It was a good chance to make some money with his new inventions. |
Damien Hirst--Artist or Businessman?
Born in Bristol on 7 June 1965, Damien Hirst is the best known member of the group that has been called the w Young British Artists,. Damien became known after the collector Cahrles Saatchi started supporting his work. His work was first shown in 1992 in the first Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in North London.
Hirst's first major work was titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living and was a large dead tiger shark in a glass tank.
What makes Hirst so controversial(有争议的) is that he is often accused of becoming successful because of work done by other people. It is true that he has many assistants working with him and Hirst believes their work is also his work.
There has also been much discussion on whether Hirst’s work is art or not.
| A．The sale of this work, in 2004, made him the second most expensive living artist. |
| B．Throughout the nineties, it was Saatchi’s support that certainly contributed to Hirst’s success. |
| C．Despite the breakdown of the relationship between Saatchi and Hirst, the artistes popularity continues to grow steadily. |
| D．One critic has said that a stuffed animal on the wall is more art than the work of Hirst. |
| E．This is because he sees the real creative act as being the idea, not the actual making of the piece. |
| F．Hirst outdid his previous sale when Lullaby Spring was sold for £50m to an unknown investment group. |
【推荐3】“Painters, do not fear perfection. You will never achieve it! Just try as you will if you are ordinary. Even if you paint terribly, badly, people will still see that you are ordinary. ”
-Salvador Dali
“Every morning when I awake,” wrote the artist of the soft watches and burning giraffes, “the greatest of joys is mine: that of being Salvador Dalí. . .” The Spanish artist, so famous and so rich, was creative not only in his art. He talked nonstop too; his favorite topic was how to be a genius. “Oh Salvador,” he concluded, “now you know the truth: that if you act the genius, you will be one!”
Had he lived during the Renaissance (文艺复兴), Dalí would have been recognized sooner as a genius. In our age, though, which he felt was growing increasingly stupid, Dalí represented an air of challenging and annoying everyone else. Today he is ranked alongside Picasso as one of the modernist greats, and the general public quite clearly loves his art as well; therefore, it is difficult to understand why he should still be seen as so challenging and annoying, and why many people should still consider him as mad. Dalí himself declared: “The only difference between myself and a madman is the fact that I am not mad!” Writer Michel Déon once said, “His personality -whether it is loved or hated-is based on something deep and appealing, and that is his roots and his feelings. Roots that reach deep into the earth, absorbing everything that has been produced in four thousand years of painting, architecture and sculpture. Feelings that are picking up things to come, from the future, expecting it and flying to it at lightning speed. It cannot be emphasized enough that Dalí is a man of tireless scientific curiosity.” One might say that Dalí was typical of his age: he had grasped how to make himself a star.
1. What does Dali actually want to say to other painters?| A．“Be brave to show yourself.” |
| B．“Be honest to yourself.” |
| C．“Be pleased to stay ordinary.” |
| D．“Be respectful to the public.” |
| A．He was too proud of himself. |
| B．He was undoubtedly a genius. |
| C．He was too challenging and annoying. |
| D．He was unfairly understood. |
| A．He was not only learned but advanced. |
| B．He was not only honest but emotional. |
| C．He was a scientist rather than an artist. |
| D．He was a star rather than a genius. |
| A．His amazing achievements in art. |
| B．His special ability in learning. |
| C．His extraordinary belief in himself. |
| D．His annoying behavior in public. |
