Course : ENGLISH B CLASS

Read the text and choose the correct option(A,B or C)for items 1-10.

Raphael was born on March the 28th or April the 6th, 1483. His father, Giovanni Santi, was a competent painter and was highly appreciated in Urbino, a region that housed one of the most glittering courts in Italy. This provided the young Raffaelo with quite a privileged upbringing within the culture of the Umbrian court. However, Raphael's mother dies in 1491 when he is eight years old. His father, Giovanni, dies three years later when he is still only eleven. Before his death, Giovanni manages to place his son as a trainee in the art studio of Pietro Perugino. Although Raphael very quickly escaped from the painting style of his trainer, he followed Perugino's method of constructing paintings all of his life. Raphael's move to Florence in 1504 was stimulated by his strong wish to learn more from the recognized great representatives of Florentine art. Leonardo da Vinci was at the peak of his fame and had returned to the city from Milan in 1500. Raphael copied figures by Leonardo and Michelangelo who had both studied the anatomy of the human body. In Florence, Raphael also completed three large pieces for inner church parts, The Ansidei Madonna, The Baglioni altarpiece, both commissioned by Perugian clients, and The Madonna del Baldacchino for a chapel in Santo Spirito, a Florentine church. One of his final paintings of the Florentine period is the magnificent Saint Catherine now in the National Gallery in London. Raphael was able to continue with his own developing style whilst absorbing the influences of Florentine art. At the age of 25, he found a patron, Pope Julius II, and was given the task of decorating rooms in the Pope's private apartments. The Stanza also known as the Raphael Rooms, are located on the upper floor of the Vatican Palace.   

Read the text and decide if each statement (1-10) is True (A), False (B) or Not Mentioned (C).

Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) was born in Florence in or about 1435. His father worked as a tile and brick maker and, later, as a tax collector. Verrocchio never married, and had to provide financial support for some members of his family. He was at first apprenticed to a goldsmith. He was an Italian sculptor, goldsmith and painter who worked at the court of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence in the early Renaissance. Few paintings are attributed to him with certainty, but a number of important painters were trained at his workshop. His pupils included Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino and Lorenzo di Credi. His greatest importance was as a sculptor and his last work, the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, is universally accepted as a masterpiece.

A small painting on panel of Tobias (“Tobias and the angel”) as he sets out on his journey with the Archangel Raphael, carrying the fish with which he was to heal his father's blindness, was probably painted as a private devotional picture. It is now in London at the National Gallery. “The Baptism of Christ”, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, was painted in 1474-75. In this work Verrocchio was assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, then a youth and a member of his workshop, who painted the angel on the left and the part of the background above. Andrea resolved never to touch the brush again because Leonardo, his pupil, had far surpassed him. “The Madonna enthroned with John the Baptist and St Donato” is in the Cathedral at Pistoia. It had been left unfinished and was completed by Lorenzo di Credi when Verrocchio was in Venice near the end of his life. He died in Venice in 1488. He is one of the most important Italian sculptors of the Renaissance.

                                                                                                                                                                (301 words)

Read the text and choose the correct option

Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect and poet and one of the great artists of the Italian Renaissance. Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Florence (Italy) where his father was the local magistrate. A few weeks after his birth, the family moved to Florence. In 1488, Michelangelo was apprenticed to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. He then lived in the household of Lorenzo de' Medici, the leading patron of the arts in Florence. After the Medici were expelled from Florence, Michelangelo decided to move to Bologna and then to Rome. His primary works were sculptures in these early years. His 'Pietà' (1497) made his name and he returned to Florence a famous sculptor. Here he produced his 'David' (1501-1504). In 1505, Pope Julius II summoned Michelangelo back to Rome and commissioned him to design Julius' own tomb. Due to quarrels between Julius and Michelangelo, and the many other demands on the artist's time, the project was never completed, although Michelangelo did produce a sculpture of Moses for the tomb. Michelangelo's next major commission was the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (1508-1512). It was recognised at once as a great work of art and from then on Michelangelo was regarded as Italy's greatest living artist. Michelangelo was greatly affected by another artist of the day, Leonardo da Vinci. The two artists battled for different commissions in the city, but Michelangelo was summoned by the Pope to complete a vast number of projects. None of these were ever completed in their full mastery, as was the Sistine Chapel. In 1534, Michelangelo returned to Rome where he was commissioned to paint 'The Last Judgment' on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. From 1546 he was increasingly active as an architect. He died in Rome on 18 February 1564.