Portraiture in Fiction and Visual Arts

I. Stone. The Agony and the Ecstasy.

A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo

I. Stone is a well-known American writer, more than twenty novels came from his pen. The most famous of them are “Lust for Life,” (1934); “Sailor on Horseback. The Biography of Jack London,” (1938); “The Passionate Journey,” (1959); “The President’s Lady,” (1951); “The Greek Treasure,” (1975).

“The Agony and the Ecstasy” (1961) is a passionate biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti — one of the giants of Italian High Renaissance, creator of the David, painter of the Sistine ceiling, architect of the dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.

 

Pre-reading tasks

I. Pronounce the proper names:

Irving Stone ['ə:vɪη stəʊn]

Michelangelo Buonarroti [ˌmaɪkl'ændʒɪləʊ ˌbwɔnə'rɔtɪ]

Granacci [ɡrə'nætʃɪ]

Botticelli [ˌbɔtɪ'tʃelɪ]

Roselli [rɔ'zelɪ]

Ghirlandaio [ɡə:lən'daɪəʊ]

Soggi ['sɔʤɪ]

Leonardo da Vinci [ˌlɪ:ə 'nɑ:dəʊ də 'vɪntʃɪ]

Medici ['medɪtʃɪ]

Rhaphael ['ræfeɪl]

Pico della Mirandola ['pɪkəʊ ˌdelə mɪ'rændələ]

Rustici ['rᴧstɪtʃɪ]

Euclid ['ju:klɪd]

Goliath [ɡə'laɪəѲ]

 

 

II. Match the words in column A with their synonyms in column B:

 

A                                                   B

 

1. magnificent (adj)                          a. remains

2. malformed (adj)                            b. cleverness

3. fossil (n)                                        c. reproach

4. reprove (v)                                    d. ugly

5. agility (n)                                      e. great

 

III.  Answer the questions:

1. What do you know about the Age of the Renaissance [rɪˈneɪsəns] in Western-European Art? What were its ideals?

2. What do you know about such giants of the Renaissance in Italy as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo?

 

The Agony and the Ecstasy

(an extract; abridged)

 

Granacci launched a celebration party built around the meeting of the Company of the Cauldron¹. To salute Michelangelo’s good fortune, eleven members of the Company showed up, Botticelli limping painfully on crutches, and Roselli, of the rival studio to Ghirlandaio, so ill that he had to be carried in on a litter.

Granacci had been provisioning Rustici’s stidio all afternoon with chains of sausages, cold beef and suckling pig, figures carved out of pastry, demijohns of Chianti². When Granacci approached Soggi with the news, he contributed an enormous basin of pickled pigs’ feet.

The party lasted until dawn; but before that, two incidents occurred which would affect the pattern of his days.

The first filled him with joy. The ill and aged Rosselli gathered the ten members of the Company about him, announced:

“It is not meat and drink, if you will forgive a pun, for a member of this Company of the Cauldron to be carried to this party on a litter. Therefore, much as I dislike promoting anyone from the Ghirlandio studio, I resign from the Company and nominate Michelangelo Buonarroti to succeed me.”

He was accepted. He had been no part of any group since the Medici sculpture garden. He remembered again his lonely childhood, how difficult it had been for him to make friends. He had been skinny, unsociable, unwanted. Now all these artists of Florence, even those who had long waited to be invited into the Company, were applauding his election.

The second incident was to cause him considerable anguish. It was begun by Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo was already angry at Leonardo by the first time he had seen him crossing the Piazza della Signoria³, accompanied by his inseparable apprentice-companion, Salai, a boy with features straight of a Greek statue, a mass of curly hair waving around his head, with a small round mouth and soft round chin, dressed by Leonardo in an expensive linen shirt, a cloak rich in silver brocade. Yet compared to Leonardo, Salai was dull in appearance; for Leonardo’s was the most perfect face to appear in Florence since the golden beauty of Pico della Mirandola. He carried his big sculptural head thrown back aristocratically, the magnificently broad forehead topped by a haze of reddish hair, softly curled and worn down to his shoulders; a chin carved out of the heroic Carrara statuary marble⁴ he despised; a flawlessly designed broad nose, rounded, full-blooded lips, the face dominated by cool blue eyes of a piercing penetration and intelligence, and the fair complexion of a country girl.

Leonardo’s figure, as Michelangelo watched him cross the square followed by his servants and hangers-on, matched the flawless face: tall, graceful, with the broad shoulders and narrow hips of a wrestler, with the agility and strength as well, dressed in regal splendor and a disdain for convention: a rose-colored cloak barely covering his shoulders, and falling short at the knees, wearing his shirt tight to the point of bursting.

He had made Michelangelo feel ugly and malformed, conscious that his clothes were inexpensive, ill fitting and worn. Leonardo’s golden hair and scent of perfume, the lace about his neck and wrists, the jewels, the ineffable exquisiteness of the man’s presence made him feel tattered and dirty by comparison.

When he had spoken of this to Rustici, who was Leonardo’s friend, Rustici had reproved him.

“Don’t be fooled by an elegant exterior. Leonardo has a magnificent brain. His studies of geometry are extending the work of Euclid. He has been dissecting animals for years, and keeping notebooks of his anatomical drawings. In his pursuit of geology he has discovered fish-shell fossils on top of the mountains of the upper Arno⁵, proving that they were once under water. He is also an engineer and inventor of unbelievable machines: a multiple-barrel gun, cranes for lifting heavy loads. Even now he is completing experiments for a machine that will fly through the air as the birds do. The dazzling performance of imitating a rich nobleman is his effort to persuade the world to forget that he is the illegitimate son of a Vinci innkeeper’s daughter. Actually he is the only man in Florence who works as hard and long as you do: twenty hours a day. Look for the real Leonardo beneath that defensive elegance.”

In the face of this brilliant recital, Michelangelo could not bring himself to mention his anger at the man’s outspoken deprecation of sculpture. Leonardo’s hearty welcoming of him into the Company of the Cauldron this evening had also assuaged his uneasiness. Then he heard Leonardo’s high-pitched voice behind him, declaring:

“I refused to compete for the Duccio block⁶ because sculpture is a mechanical art.”

“Surely you would not call Donatello a mechanic?” asked a deeper voice.

“In some ways, yes,” answered Leonardo. “Sculpture is so much less intellectual than painting; it lacks so many of its natural aspects. I spent years at it, and I tell you from experience that painting is far more difficult, and reaches the greater perfection.”

“Still, for a commission as important as that...?”

“No, no, I would never carve marble. It causes a man to sweat and wearies his body all over. The marble carver comes out of a day’s work as filthy as a plasterer or baker, his nostrils clogged with dust, his hair and face and legs covered with powder and chips, his clothes stinking. When I paint I work in my finest clothes. I emerge at the end of a day immaculately clean and refreshed. Friends come in to read poetry to me, and play music while I draw. I am a fastidious man. Sculpture is for laborers.”

Michelangelo felt his spine stiffen. He glanced over his shoulder. Leonardo’s back was to him. Again a rage rose in his bowels. He yearned to spin Leonardo around, smash him in his beautiful face with the sculptor’s fist he held in such contempt. Then quickly he moved to the other end of the room, hurt not only for himself but for all marble carvers. One day he would make Leonardo eat those words.

There began the final months of work, so highly pleasurable to him now that the two years of labor were coming into focus. He went to David’s face, carved it tenderly, with all the love and sympathy in his being: the strong, noble face of the youth who would, in one more moment, make the leap into manhood, but at this instant was still sad and uncertain over what he must do; the brows deeply knit, the eyes questioning, the full lips expectant. The set of the features had to be of a whole with the body. The expression on David’s face must communicate that evil was vulnerable, even though it wore armor weighing a thousand pounds. There would always be some spot in it which was undefended; and if the good in man were dominant it would find that exposed area and evolve a way to penetrate it. The emotion must convey the idea that his conflict with Goliath was a parable of good and evil. What he wanted was the outward expression of blood, muscle, brain, vein, bone, tissue; true, convincing, lifelike, in beautiful proportion: David in the warm palpitant human flesh, with a mind and a spirit and a soul shining through; a David quivering with emotion, knowing that to live is to act.

 

* * *

 

That evening, the fourth day of its journey, the David arrived at its destination.

Michelangelo drew in his breath sharply as he came into the piazza. He had not seen the David at such a distance. There it stood in all its majestic grace, lighting up the Signoria with pure white light. He stood below the figure, feeling insignificant, weak and homely, powerless now that the statue was out of his hands, asking himself, “How much of what I wanted to say have I managed to convey?”

He had stood guard for four nights, was only half conscious from exhaustion. Should he keep guard again tonight? Now that the David was completely exposed, at anyone’s mercy? A few large stones, well directed, could tear off its arm, even the head. Granacci said firmly:

“Things happen while something is in transit, that stop when it takes its permanent place.”

He guided Michelangelo home, took off his boots, helped him into bed and put a blanket over him:

“Let him sleep. Even if the sun goes twice around.”

He woke feeling refreshed, and ravishingly hungry. He enjoyed the fresh white linen shirt, stockings and sandals, the first he could remember in weeks.

He turned off the Piazza San Firenze into the lower end of the Signoria. A crowd was standing below the David in silence. Fluttering from the statue were pieces of paper stuck to the marble during the night.

He walked across the square, through the crowd. It fell back to let him pass. He tried to read their expressions, to see what was in the wind. They seemed big-eyed.

He came to the David, climbed up on the base, began taking off the papers, reading them one by one. By the end of the third, his eyes began to mist: for they were messages of love and acceptance:

 

You have given us back our self-respect.

We are proud to be Florentines.

How magnificent is man!

You have made a thing of beauty.

Bravo!

 

He turned, stood above the crowd gazing up at him. There was silence in the square. And yet he had never felt such complete communication. It was as though they read each other’s thoughts, as though they were one and the same: they were a part of him, every Florentine standing below, eyes turned up to him, and he was a part of them.

 

Explanatory Notes

 

1. the Company of the Cauldron ['kɔ:ldrən] — Общество Горшка.

2. demijohns of Chianti — a demijohn ['demɪdʒən] is a narrow-necked bottle with wicker handles; Chianti [kɪ'æntɪ] is a kind of wine (къянти).

3. Piazza della Signoria ['pɪædzə 'delə 'sɪ:njɔrɪə] — Площадь Синьории.

4. Carrara statuary marble — Carrara [kə'rɑ:rə] — the place in Italy from which famous white marble was brought to Rome and Florence.

5. the Arno ['ɑ:nəʊ] — a river in Italy.

6. the Duccio block ['dʊtʃəʊ] — Duccio, a famous Italian sculptor, started to carve a huge marble block but did not finish his work. Michelangelo won the competition for this block and carved the David which became the symbol of independent Florence.

 

Post-reading tasks

SOUNDS AND SPELLING

IV. Pronounce and spell the words.

['stju:dɪəʊ], ['krᴧtʃɪz], [rɪ'zaɪn], [sə'ksɪ:d], [pəs'weɪd], ['pə:fju:m], [sent], [ɪk'stɪərɪə], ['pærəbl], ['pælpɪtənt], [mᴧsl], ['tɪsju: / 'tɪʃu:], ['ekskwɪzɪt], ['stætju:], [pə'sju:t], [fɔsl], [ɪ'mə:dʒ], [spaɪn], ['fɔrɪd], ['blænkət], ['mə:sɪ].

 

V. Transcribe and translate the words:

to launch, sausages, to quiver, apprentice, statue, mass, curly, wrestler, wrist, scent, to weigh, magnificent, pursuit, illegitimate, assuage, fastidious, to evolve, palpitant, vulnerable, muscle, vein, tissue, exquisiteness, to resign, parable, to persuade, guard, mercy, exhaustion, to climb, ravishingly, majestic, bravo.

 

WORD FORMATION

VI. From what words are the following words formed? Give derivatives using word-building suffixes and prefixes:

uneasiness, unsociable, carver, plasterer, unbelievable, laborer, exquisiteness, painfully, inseparable, hanger-on, fastidious, heartily, congratulation, suckling, dislike, election, skinny, flawlessly, full-blooded, childhood, insignificant, powerless, homely.

 

VII. Give the three forms of the verbs:

to launch, to limp, to forgive, to salute, to spend, to last, to pickle, to burst, to fool, to draw, to pursuit, to forget, to persuade, to clog, to compete, to stink, to carve, to stiffen, to assuage, to nominate, to promote, to applaud, to convey, to guide, to flutter, to gaze.

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

VIII. Find synonyms for the words in italics:

rival — enemy, companion, competitor;

studio — surgery, workshop, study;

pun — figure of speech, joke, anecdote;

malformed — ugly, pretty, petty;

scent — aroma, smell, perfume;

spine — skeleton, bone, backbone.

 

IX. Sort out the antonyms:

 

1. fortune                        a. to empty

2. dawn                           b. false

3. curly                           c. failure

4. to fill                           d. to disappear

5. true                              e. to finish

6. to last                          f. straight

7. broad                          g. fleshy

8. to deprecate                h. sunset

9. skinny                         i. to approve

10. to emerge                  j. narrow

 

X. Give definitions of the following words using an English-English dictionary:

a) crutches, litter, brocade;

b) ineffable, immaculate, fastidious;

c) to promote, to pursuit, to stink.

 

XI. Translate and paraphrase the following:

1) a mass of curly hair waving around his neck;

2) features straight of a Greek statue;

3) an expensive linen shirt;

4) magnificently broad forehead;

5) a haze of reddish hair;

6) flawlessly designed broad nose;

7) fair complexion;

8) eyes of a piercing penetration and intelligence;

9) flawless face;

10) narrow hips of a wrestler;

11) dressed in regal splendor;

12) a disdain for convention;

13) ineffable exquisiteness.

 

XII. Mateh the definitions with the words:

1. exterior (n)      a. a short story which is told in order to make a moral or religious point

2. parable (n)      b. to walk with difficulty or in an uneven way because one of your legs or feet is hurt

3. fossil (n)          c. the outside surface of smth; usual appearance or behaviour

4. vulnerable (adj) d. the hardened remains of a prehistorical animal or plant, or a print that it leaves in rock

5. limp (v)           e. weak and easily hurt physically or emotionally

 

XIII. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following:

 

a) сильное, благородное лицо; брови нахмурены; полные губы; сходиться в центре (фокусе); через мгновение; стать зрелым мужчиной; в этот миг; отыскать путь к; все черты в единстве с телом; зло уязвимо; добро преобладает; быть одетым в броню; незащищенное место; уязвимое место; проникнуть в; притча о добре и зле; плоть человека; разум и душа; дрожать от волнения; жить — значит действовать.

 

b) торжественный прием; молочный поросенок; огромный таз; свиные ножки в рассоле; оплетенные бутылки с вином; холодная телятина; фигурное печенье.

XIV. Insert prepositions and postpositions:

1. … he felt dirty ()comparison.

2. … figures carved () () pastry.

3. … filled him () joy.

4. … he was angry () Leonardo.

5. … rich () silver brocade.

6. … features straight () a Greek statue.

7. … accompanied () his apprentice.

8. … a chin carved () () the Carrara statuary marble.

9. … compared () Leonardo.

10. … his forehead topped () a haze () reddish hair.

11. … a disdain () convention.

12. … be fooled () an elegant exterior.

13. … his anger () the man’s deprecation () sculpture.

14. … look () the real Leonardo.

15. … quivering () emotion.

16. … I tell you () experience.

17. … eleven members showed ().

18. … to spin Leonardo ().

19. … to smash him () his face.

20. … head thrown () aristocratically.

 

XV. Read and translate the extract; insert articles into the gaps were necessary.

He burned his earlier drawings, settled down to () simplest beginning, probing within himself.

() Greeks had carved bodies from their white marble of such perfect proportion and strength that they could never be surpassed, but () figures had been without mind or spirit. His David would be () incarnation of everything Lorenzo de’ Medici had been fighting for, that () Plato Academy had believed was () rightful heritage of man: not () sinful little creature living on for () salvation in () next life, but () glorious creation capable of beauty, strength, courage, wisdom, faith in his own ins, with () brain and will and inner power to fashion () word filled with () fruit of man’s creative intellect. His David would be () Apollo, but considerably more; () Hercules, but consi­derably more; () Adam, but considerably more; () most fully realized man the world had yet seen, functioning in () rational and humane world.

(From “The Agony and the Ecstasy” by I. Stone)

XVI. Paraphrase the following sentences:

1. It is not meat and drink, if you will forgive a pun, for a member of this Company of the Cauldron to be carried to this party on a litter.

2.He had made Michelangelo feel ugly and malformed, conscious that his clothes were inexpensive, ill fitting and worn.

3.“Don’t be fooled by an elegant exterior … Look for the real Leonardo beneath that defensive elegance.”

4. I emerge at the end of a day immaculately clean and refreshed.

5. One day he would make Leonardo eat those words.

6. The set of the features had to be of a whole with the body.

7. He stood below the figure, feeling insignificant, weak and homely, powerless now that the statue was out of his hands.

8. “Things happen while something is in transit, that stop when it takes its permanent place.”

9..And yet he had never felt such complete communication.

 

XVII. Work in groups; make up a story in each group using the following phrases:

a) ineffable exquisiteness; to limp on crutches; multiple-barrel gun; to receive smb. heartily; to affect the pattern of one’s days; to fill smb with joy; to succeed smth.; to make smb. eat the words.

b) to launch a celebration party; elegant exterior; magnificent brain; to salute one’s good fortune; to convey the idea; to quiver with emotion; to lack smth; to offer congratulations; to last until dawn.

c) lonely childhood; as filthy as plasterer; much less intellectual than smb; high-pitched voice; outspoken deprecation of smth; to come into focus; to wear armor; to be undefended; to tell from experience.

d) fish-shell fossils; dazzling performance; to fill smb with joy; to forgive a pun; immaculately clean and refreshed; parable of good and evil; to reach the greater perfection; to tell from experience.