Techniques used during the Renaissance托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

Techniques used during the Renaissance托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、Techniques used during the Renaissance托福听力原文：

NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.

MALE PROFESSOR:As I was saying,the Renaissance period—which started in the fourteen hundreds in Europe—the Renaissance was still a pretty religious period.And that's reflected in the artwork of that time.

But artists were starting to experiment with a more secular point of view as well—a tendency to also use the natural world as the subject matter for their art.

And there were different ways that these natural themes were explored.For instance,many artists would paint portraits,while others—although this was more common in northern Europe—would make landscapes the subject of their works.

But today I'd like to consider an influential Italian Renaissance artist,Leon Battista Alberti,who took a slightly different approach.

Leon Battista Alberti was a painter,sculptor,architect,musician,poet—very wide-ranging interests—like daVinci or Michelangelo,the sort of guy for whom the term“Renaissance man”was in fact created.

Alberti believed that the most important approach for a painter was to capture a story or narrative.Now,as I've indicated,this narrative could be either religious or secular,depending on what the work of art was for.If the work was to be placed in a church then obviously it'd have a religious theme,whereas if it was for someone's home then it could deal with a different subject matter.The exact narrative didn't really matter,so long as it was one that captivated the audience—that held the viewer's attention.

So what is actually needed to tell a story?

Well,Alberti needed characters,right?Human figures.And he wanted to represent them as realistically as possible to capture the viewer's attention.One way he achieved this was to make use of what's known as the contrapposto pose.

A contrapposto pose basically entails showing a slight twist in the body.The shoulders and hips are usually bent in different directions.In other words,if the left shoulder is bent so that it's slightly higher than the right shoulder,then the hips will be bent so that the left side will be slightly lower than the right side.Similarly,in sculptures,most of the weight seems to be on one foot,which also results in this slanted position—making it seem like the figure is about to walk or move.This adds to the realistic aspect of the figure.

But there are actually a lot of things that could go wrong in the attempt to create such a pose.You could make a figure’s arms bigger than its legs,or the head too small for the body.Messing up the proportions can leave a figure looking cartoon-like and unnatural.But Alberti had a solution:He encouraged artists to visualize a figure's bones and structure.This would give the artist an idea of the proportions of the figure.From there,Alberti suggested the artist imagine attaching the tendons and muscles,then covering those with flesh and skin.

Now,although this method may seem complicated,artists since antiquity have used anatomical observations to try to get the proportions of the human figure as accurate as possible—though obviously not to the degree that Alberti was recommending.

Now,in addition to characters,the setting is extremely important,especially when attempting to tell a story realistically.Renaissance artists essentially needed to create a three-dimensional scene on a two-dimensional surface.They accomplished this by the use of perspective—a relatively new idea for artists at the time.In particular,the type of perspective that Alberti advocated was called linear one-point perspective.In fact,Alberti was one of the artists who developed the geometry behind linear one-point perspective.

Linear perspective basically consists of drawing straight lines that extend from the forefront of the painting into the background—lines that seem to be parallel to each other,but which actually converge on a single point in the horizon,called the vanishing point.By drawing figures and objects smaller and smaller as the lines get closer together,the artist is able to create depth in a painting.This gives the illusion of a third dimension and makes the work of art more realistic.

二、Techniques used during the Renaissance托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：在艺术史课上听一节课的一部分。

男教授：正如我所说，始于欧洲十四世纪的文艺复兴时期，文艺复兴仍然是一个相当宗教化的时期。这反映在当时的艺术作品中。

但艺术家们也开始尝试一种更世俗的观点，一种将自然世界作为其艺术主题的倾向。

这些自然主题有不同的探索方式。例如，许多艺术家会画肖像画，而其他艺术家（尽管这在北欧更为常见）会将风景画作为他们作品的主题。

但今天，我想考虑一位有影响力的意大利文艺复兴艺术家利昂·巴蒂斯塔·阿尔贝蒂，他采取了一种稍微不同的方法。

利昂·巴蒂斯塔·阿尔贝蒂（LeonBattistaAlberti）是一位画家、雕塑家、建筑师、音乐家、诗人，兴趣广泛，比如达芬奇（daVinci）或米开朗基罗（Michelangelo），事实上，“文艺复兴时期的人”一词就是为他创造的。

阿尔贝蒂认为，画家最重要的方法是捕捉故事或叙事。现在，正如我所指出的，这种叙述可以是宗教的，也可以是世俗的，这取决于艺术作品的用途。如果作品放在教堂里，那么很明显它会有一个宗教主题，而如果是放在某人的家里，那么它可以处理不同的主题。确切的叙述并不重要，只要它能吸引观众的注意力。

那么，讲述一个故事实际上需要什么呢？

阿尔贝蒂需要人物，对吗？人体模型。他希望尽可能真实地表现它们，以吸引观众的注意力。他做到这一点的一个方法是利用所谓的“对立面”姿势。

相反的姿势基本上需要身体稍微扭转。肩部和臀部通常向不同方向弯曲。换句话说，如果左肩弯曲，使其略高于右肩，则臀部将弯曲，使左侧略低于右侧。同样，在雕塑中，大部分重量似乎都集中在一只脚上，这也导致了这种倾斜的姿势，使人物看起来好像要行走或移动。这增加了人物的真实感。

但实际上，在尝试创建这样的姿势时，有很多事情可能会出错。你可以使一个人的胳膊比腿大，或者头部比身体小。弄乱比例可能会使人物看起来像卡通，不自然。但阿尔贝蒂有一个解决办法：他鼓励艺术家将人物的骨骼和结构形象化。这会让艺术家对人物的比例有一个概念。从那里，阿尔贝蒂建议艺术家想象连接肌腱和肌肉，然后用肉和皮肤覆盖这些肌腱和肌肉。

现在，尽管这种方法可能看起来很复杂，但自古以来，艺术家们就一直使用解剖学观察，试图尽可能准确地获得人体的比例，尽管显然没有达到阿尔贝蒂所推荐的程度。

现在，除了角色之外，场景也非常重要，尤其是在试图真实地讲述故事时。文艺复兴时期的艺术家基本上需要在二维表面上创建三维场景。他们通过使用透视法实现了这一点，这在当时对艺术家来说是一个相对较新的想法。特别是，阿尔贝蒂提倡的透视类型被称为线性单点透视。事实上，阿尔贝蒂是在线性单点透视法背后发展几何学的艺术家之一。

线性透视基本上包括绘制从绘画最前端延伸到背景线的直线，这些背景线似乎彼此平行，但实际上在地平线上的一个点上会聚，称为消失点。当线条越来越近时，通过绘制越来越小的人物和物体，艺术家能够在绘画中创造出深度。这给人一种三维的错觉，使艺术作品更加逼真。

三、Techniques used during the Renaissance托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.Reasons for the transition from religious to secular themes in Renaissance art

B.The disproportionate influence of Italian artists during the Renaissance period

C.Techniques used during the Renaissance to produce realistic works of art

D.A comparison of themes in paintings and sculptures during the Renaissance

Q2:2.What is the professor's opinion of Leon Battista Alberti as an artist?

A.Alberti's interests were too diverse for him to succeed in any one field.

B.Alberti was ineffective in imposing his own theories on other artists.

C.Alberti was a much more skilled artist than da Vinci or Michelangelo.

D.Alberti represents the Renaissance ideal of wide-ranging achievement.

Q3:3.According to the professor,what did Alberti consider to be the most important aspect of a Renaissance painting?

A.That it convey an appealing narrative

B.That its figures be posed symmetrically

C.That its theme not be religious

D.That its characters be positioned within a landscape

Q4:4.Why did some artists begin to use the contrapposto pose?

A.To create a cartoon-like effect

B.To help viewers identify the main figure in a work of art

C.To show the relative sizes of human figures

D.To make human figures appear more natural

Q5:5.Why does the professor discuss tendons and muscles?

A.To emphasize that Alberti's study of anatomy led to his interest in art

B.To show the emphasis Alberti placed on using physically fit models

C.To illustrate the difficulty of maintaining a contrapposto pose in real life

D.To explain one of Alberti's methods for creating accurate proportions

Q6:6.Why was the development of linear one-point perspective important to Renaissance artists?

A.It helped painters to place figures more symmetrically within their paintings.

B.It allowed painters to create an illusion of three dimensions.

C.It enabled artists to paint large landscapes for the first time.

D.It encouraged artists to take an interest in geometry.

四、Techniques used during the Renaissance托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：C

A2:正确答案：D

A3:正确答案：A

A4:正确答案：D

A5:正确答案：D

A6:正确答案：B