TF阅读真题第923篇Science and Nineteenth-Century Visual Arts

Science and Nineteenth-Century Visual Arts

 

 

In the middle of the nineteenth century, rapid developments in the sciences and popular fascination with recent technological advances were being reflected in European art. Many artists believed they could portray reality with greater accuracy if they adopted a scientific approach, depicting their subjects with a strict and detached objectivity. New technologies and ideas about how the mind perceives the world inspired completely new artistic methods that abandoned traditional standards and often surprised the public.

Camera photography, based on the exposure of chemically coated film to light, had a profound impact on the art of the nineteenth century. Improvements by the Frenchman Louis Daguerre made the camera a useful tool by the 1830s, though it remained large and cumbersome until the dry plate and miniature camera were introduced in the 1870s. Photographic services were already in high demand by mid-century; in the 1860s, 30,000 people in Paris were making their living from photography and allied fields. The use of celluloid film and George Eastman’s invention of the Kodak camera in 1888， which quickly became mass-produced and affordable, gave wide public access to the practice of photography. The ability of photography to depict a scene with exactitude had a significant impact on art. On the one hand, it encouraged many artists to be true to reality, to reproduce on canvas a visual image akin to that of a photograph. On the other hand, other artists now felt that such realism was no longer necessary in their sphere. However, the great majority of the public, which now had wide access to museum exhibitions, was accustomed to photographic accuracy and desired art that was representative and intelligible. Realistic works of art met this need, at least superficially.

Many artists began to reject myths and symbols, choosing to portray the world as it actually was, or at least as it appeared to them-a world without illusions, everyday life in all its grimness. The realist painter Gustave Courbet proclaimed himself to be “without ideals and without religion.” His fellow Frenchman Jean- Francois Millet held a similar opinion. Instead of romanticizing peasants in the manner of earlier artists, he painted the harsh physical conditions under which they labored. In England, the so- called Pre-Raphaelites took as their model painters who came before Raphael in Renaissance Italy and who had depicted the realistic simplicity of nature. In painting historical scenes, these artists meticulously researched the landscape, architecture, fauna, and costumes of their subjects. William Holman Hunt, one of the movement’s founders, traveled all the way to Palestine before painting The Scapegoat in order to guarantee accurate portrayal of the Dead Sea. In the past, artists had been concerned about composition and perspective (the representation of three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional space), but under the influence of photography they began to paint incomplete, off-center pictures. Orchestra of the Opera, by French painter Edgar Degas, looks as if its edges have been cut off, with the musicians only partially visible and the dancers’ heads out of the frame.  

On April 15,1874,six French artists-Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Berthe Morisot-opened an exhibition in Paris that a critic scornfully called “impressionist,”after the title of one of Monet’s paintings, Impression: Sunrise. The Impressionists were influenced by new theories of physics that claimed images are transmitted to the brain as small light particles that the brain then reassembles. The Impressionists wanted their paintings to capture what things look like before the brain “distorts” them. Many of these painters left their studios to paint objects exactly as they look outdoors when light hits them at a certain angle. Monet, for example, emphasized outdoor painting and the need for spontaneity-for reproducing subjects without preconceptions about how earlier artists had depicted them -and seeking to show exactly how the colors and shapes struck the eye. Monet was particularly interested in creating multiple paintings of the same scene-from different viewpoints, under different weather conditions, at different times of day-to underscore that no single “correct”depiction could possibly capture a subject.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

In the middle of the nineteenth century, rapid developments in the sciences and popular fascination with recent technological advances were being reflected in European art. Many artists believed they could portray reality with greater accuracy if they adopted a scientific approach, depicting their subjects with a strict and detached objectivity. New technologies and ideas about how the mind perceives the world inspired completely new artistic methods that abandoned traditional standards and often surprised the public.

According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements best describes the effect of science on European art in the middle of the nineteenth century?

 

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

 

AScientists successfully advocated new uses of technology in art.

BScientific developments led artists to represent their subjects in a more objective way.

CTechnology and scientists became popular subjects in new works of art

DArtists competed with scientists to describe reality most accurately

2

Camera photography, based on the exposure of chemically coated film to light, had a profound impact on the art of the nineteenth century. Improvements by the Frenchman Louis Daguerre made the camera a useful tool by the 1830s, though it remained large and cumbersome until the dry plate and miniature camera were introduced in the 1870s. Photographic services were already in high demand by mid-century; in the 1860s, 30,000 people in Paris were making their living from photography and allied fields. The use of celluloid film and George Eastman’s invention of the Kodak camera in 1888， which quickly became mass-produced and affordable, gave wide public access to the practice of photography. The ability of photography to depict a scene with exactitude had a significant impact on art. On the one hand, it encouraged many artists to be true to reality, to reproduce on canvas a visual image akin to that of a photograph. On the other hand, other artists now felt that such realism was no longer necessary in their sphere. However, the great majority of the public, which now had wide access to museum exhibitions, was accustomed to photographic accuracy and desired art that was representative and intelligible. Realistic works of art met this need, at least superficially.

Which of the following can be inferred about works by artists who felt that “realism was no longer necessary” in art?

 

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

 

AThey were displayed in museums more often than other works.

BThey depicted objects with greater exactness than did most other works of art.

CThey were less popular with the viewing public than realistic paintings.

DThey were generally considered representative and intelligible

3

Camera photography, based on the exposure of chemically coated film to light, had a profound impact on the art of the nineteenth century. Improvements by the Frenchman Louis Daguerre made the camera a useful tool by the 1830s, though it remained large and cumbersome until the dry plate and miniature camera were introduced in the 1870s. Photographic services were already in high demand by mid-century; in the 1860s, 30,000 people in Paris were making their living from photography and allied fields. The use of celluloid film and George Eastman’s invention of the Kodak camera in 1888， which quickly became mass-produced and affordable, gave wide public access to the practice of photography. The ability of photography to depict a scene with exactitude had a significant impact on art. On the one hand, it encouraged many artists to be true to reality, to reproduce on canvas a visual image akin to that of a photograph. On the other hand, other artists now felt that such realism was no longer necessary in their sphere. However, the great majority of the public, which now had wide access to museum exhibitions, was accustomed to photographic accuracy and desired art that was representative and intelligible. Realistic works of art met this need, at least superficially.

According to paragraph 2, advances in camera technology had which of the following consequences?

 

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

 

AAccording to paragraph 2, advances in camera technology had which of the following consequences?

BCamera use became specialized and was practiced by professionals only

CPhotographers began to create and sell photographs that looked like traditional paintings.

DPhotography became less expensive and more available to ordinary people.

4

Many artists began to reject myths and symbols, choosing to portray the world as it actually was, or at least as it appeared to them-a world without illusions, everyday life in all its grimness. The realist painter Gustave Courbet proclaimed himself to be “without ideals and without religion.” His fellow Frenchman Jean- Francois Millet held a similar opinion. Instead of romanticizing peasants in the manner of earlier artists, he painted the harsh physical conditions under which they labored. In England, the so- called Pre-Raphaelites took as their model painters who came before Raphael in Renaissance Italy and who had depicted the realistic simplicity of nature. In painting historical scenes, these artists meticulously researched the landscape, architecture, fauna, and costumes of their subjects. William Holman Hunt, one of the movement’s founders, traveled all the way to Palestine before painting The Scapegoat in order to guarantee accurate portrayal of the Dead Sea. In the past, artists had been concerned about composition and perspective (the representation of three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional space), but under the influence of photography they began to paint incomplete, off-center pictures. Orchestra of the Opera, by French painter Edgar Degas, looks as if its edges have been cut off, with the musicians only partially visible and the dancers’ heads out of the frame.  

The word “proclaimed” in the passage is closest in meaning to

 

Vocabulary Questions词汇题

 

Adeclared

Bbelieved

Cwished

Dforced

5

Many artists began to reject myths and symbols, choosing to portray the world as it actually was, or at least as it appeared to them-a world without illusions, everyday life in all its grimness. The realist painter Gustave Courbet proclaimed himself to be “without ideals and without religion.” His fellow Frenchman Jean- Francois Millet held a similar opinion. Instead of romanticizing peasants in the manner of earlier artists, he painted the harsh physical conditions under which they labored. In England, the so- called Pre-Raphaelites took as their model painters who came before Raphael in Renaissance Italy and who had depicted the realistic simplicity of nature. In painting historical scenes, these artists meticulously researched the landscape, architecture, fauna, and costumes of their subjects. William Holman Hunt, one of the movement’s founders, traveled all the way to Palestine before painting The Scapegoat in order to guarantee accurate portrayal of the Dead Sea. In the past, artists had been concerned about composition and perspective (the representation of three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional space), but under the influence of photography they began to paint incomplete, off-center pictures. Orchestra of the Opera, by French painter Edgar Degas, looks as if its edges have been cut off, with the musicians only partially visible and the dancers’ heads out of the frame.  

In paragraph 3, why does the author discuss William Holman Hunt’s trip to Palestine?

 

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

 

ATo illustrate the importance some artists placed on correctly reproducing the world as it actually is

BTo explain why some nineteenth-century English artists looked to Renaissance Italy for models

CTo explain why Pre-Raphaelites were less concerned than earlier artists about composition and perspective

DTo show that English painters were more enthusiastic than French painters about applying the methods of photography

6

Many artists began to reject myths and symbols, choosing to portray the world as it actually was, or at least as it appeared to them-a world without illusions, everyday life in all its grimness. The realist painter Gustave Courbet proclaimed himself to be “without ideals and without religion.” His fellow Frenchman Jean- Francois Millet held a similar opinion. Instead of romanticizing peasants in the manner of earlier artists, he painted the harsh physical conditions under which they labored. In England, the so- called Pre-Raphaelites took as their model painters who came before Raphael in Renaissance Italy and who had depicted the realistic simplicity of nature. In painting historical scenes, these artists meticulously researched the landscape, architecture, fauna, and costumes of their subjects. William Holman Hunt, one of the movement’s founders, traveled all the way to Palestine before painting The Scapegoat in order to guarantee accurate portrayal of the Dead Sea. In the past, artists had been concerned about composition and perspective (the representation of three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional space), but under the influence of photography they began to paint incomplete, off-center pictures. Orchestra of the Opera, by French painter Edgar Degas, looks as if its edges have been cut off, with the musicians only partially visible and the dancers’ heads out of the frame.  

According to paragraph 3, the Pre-Raphaelites were a group of painters who

 

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

 

Amodeled their work on that of Gustave Courbet and Jean-Francois Millet

Bdevoted much effort to depicting their subjects realistically

Cpreferred to paint historical scenes situated in distant places

Dhad a very strong attachment to ideals and religion

7

Many artists began to reject myths and symbols, choosing to portray the world as it actually was, or at least as it appeared to them-a world without illusions, everyday life in all its grimness. The realist painter Gustave Courbet proclaimed himself to be “without ideals and without religion.” His fellow Frenchman Jean- Francois Millet held a similar opinion. Instead of romanticizing peasants in the manner of earlier artists, he painted the harsh physical conditions under which they labored. In England, the so- called Pre-Raphaelites took as their model painters who came before Raphael in Renaissance Italy and who had depicted the realistic simplicity of nature. In painting historical scenes, these artists meticulously researched the landscape, architecture, fauna, and costumes of their subjects. William Holman Hunt, one of the movement’s founders, traveled all the way to Palestine before painting The Scapegoat in order to guarantee accurate portrayal of the Dead Sea. In the past, artists had been concerned about composition and perspective (the representation of three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional space), but under the influence of photography they began to paint incomplete, off-center pictures. Orchestra of the Opera, by French painter Edgar Degas, looks as if its edges have been cut off, with the musicians only partially visible and the dancers’ heads out of the frame.  

According to paragraph 3, the unusual framing of Degas’s Orchestra of the Opera indicates

 

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

 

Athe artist’s rejection of the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites

Bthe artist’s concern with composition and perspective

Cthe problem of representing three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional space

Dthe influence of photography

8

On April 15,1874,six French artists-Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Berthe Morisot-opened an exhibition in Paris that a critic scornfully called “impressionist,”after the title of one of Monet’s paintings, Impression: Sunrise. The Impressionists were influenced by new theories of physics that claimed images are transmitted to the brain as small light particles that the brain then reassembles. The Impressionists wanted their paintings to capture what things look like before the brain “distorts” them. Many of these painters left their studios to paint objects exactly as they look outdoors when light hits them at a certain angle. Monet, for example, emphasized outdoor painting and the need for spontaneity-for reproducing subjects without preconceptions about how earlier artists had depicted them -and seeking to show exactly how the colors and shapes struck the eye. Monet was particularly interested in creating multiple paintings of the same scene-from different viewpoints, under different weather conditions, at different times of day-to underscore that no single “correct”depiction could possibly capture a subject.

According to paragraph 4, Monet painted several views of the same subject in order to

 

Factual Information Questions事实信息题

 

Aprovide support for new theories of physics

Bshow the importance of recalling how a subject has been depicted in earlier work

Cchallenge the idea that images are transmitted to the brain as small light particles

Dshow that no single painting can depict everything that is important about a subject

9

Camera photography, based on the exposure of chemically coated film to light, had a profound impact on the art of the nineteenth century.  [■]  Improvements by the Frenchman Louis Daguerre made the camera a useful tool by the 1830s, though it remained large and cumbersome until the dry plate and miniature camera were introduced in the 1870s. [■]   Photographic services were already in high demand by mid-century; in the 1860s, 30,000 people in Paris were making their living from photography and allied fields.  [■]  The use of celluloid film and George Eastman’s invention of the Kodak camera in 1888， which quickly became mass-produced and affordable, gave wide public access to the practice of photography.  [■]  The ability of photography to depict a scene with exactitude had a significant impact on art. On the one hand, it encouraged many artists to be true to reality, to reproduce on canvas a visual image akin to that of a photograph. On the other hand, other artists now felt that such realism was no longer necessary in their sphere. However, the great majority of the public, which now had wide access to museum exhibitions, was accustomed to photographic accuracy and desired art that was representative and intelligible. Realistic works of art met this need, at least superficially.

Look at the four squares [■]  that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage

This influence on art grew steadily, thanks to periodic advances in photographic technologyInsert Text Questions句子插入题

Where would the sentence best fit？Click on a square  sentence to the passage.

10

By the mid-nineteenth century in Europe, a new era of technological and scientific advances was being reflected in the arts

 

Prose Summary Questions概要小结题

 

Select 3 answers

AAs cameras and camera images became more familiar, people grew to value photographic exactitude in the painted image.

BMany painters abandoned symbolic and idealized images, preferring to depict the world as they experienced it directly.

CThe Pre-Raphaelites’ concern with composition and perspective was rejected by realists such as Degas, who painted incomplete, off-center pictures.

DAccess to photographic services and Kodak cameras caused the public to conclude that realism was no longer necessary in the artistic sphere.

EPhotographs of grim peasant labor led the Pre-Raphaelites to give up romantic illusions about peasant life and turn to historical subjects.

FNew theories about how the mind perceives images led the Impressionists to experiment with daylight and other variables