The Decameron
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This is the first part of a talk about two paintings by the English painter John William Waterhouse in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, in Liverpool. This listening exercise only deals with the first painting ‘The Decameron’. The words omitted are often quite simple ones, but they are often misspelt, because they have silent letters or sound misleading. On occasions there is more than one word to listen out for.
Good afternoon …………………………………. 1 and …………………………………. 2 to the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
I’m Sandra Penketh, Head of the Lady Lever Art Gallery. I’m going to talk about two pictures by John William Waterhouse today, (erm) ‘The Decameron‘ which is the picture here on the right-hand side and ‘The Enchanted Garden‘ here on the left-hand side.
We’re very …………………………………. 3 really that we’ve got a …………………………………. 4 of paintings to talk about and also a pair of paintings that are ………………… 5 in a very …………………………………. 6 place within the gallery (euh) because of the style and who the artist was interested …………………… 7 which I’ll elucidate a little as we go along.
Now John William Waterhouse was born in Rome in 1849 and he was the ………………. 8 of a painter, (and) you know, so from the very beginning he was ……………. ……. 9 within an artistic …………………………………. 10. His family moved ……………………… 11 to England when he was quite young, but he proceeded to help his father in the studio. So you know, he was immersed, and I think when you’re thinking about the character of the artist and what he might be interested in, it’s ……………………. 12 thinking ……………………………… 13 that.
From the 1870s he …………………………………. 14 at the Royal Academy School. So, you know, he was in the best and most academic training ground you could enter really for an artist. And …………………………………. 15 that, and …………………………………. 16 also through his ………… 17 associations, he got to meet a number of prestigious artists and certainly was …………………………………. 18 to work of a number of quite prestigious and well-known artists.
The artists that he (sort of) took up and became most interested …………………… 19 immediately were what we would call the Victorian Classicists*. So people like Frederick Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, ………………………………. 20 of whom are represented by work in this gallery and again that’s why I say these pictures hang in a very suitable place because …………………………………. 21 next to them we can see works by Leighton – you’ve got his wonderful picture here on the bottom left, ‘Psamathe‘ by Frederick Leighton (and) the amazing and …………………………………. 22 impressive ‘Daphnephoria‘ which is this very large painting here.
And then there are two works by Lawrence Alma-Tadema just to the left over there – erm ‘The Favourite Poet‘ and the very famous ‘Tepidarium‘. So it’s ………………………. 23 taking a …………………………. 24 at some of those works and thinking about the type of style that was influencing John William Waterhouse as a (as a) young artist.
As he grew a bit older he became very fascinated by the work of the Pre-Raphaelites** and particularly the work of the …………………………… 25 Pre-Raphaelites, (err most) …………………………………… 26 Edward Burne-Jones and if you just …………………………………. 27 a ……………………………… 28 behind you, you can see works by Burne-Jones – erm ‘The Beguiling of Merlin‘, ‘The Annunciation‘ and ‘The Tree of Forgiveness‘ – are the three large works at the ……………………………… 29 (there) of the wall.
So in a way, it’s a matter of looking at all these different styles and pulling them …………………………………. 30 and imagining Waterhouse being influenced by them, and then pulling them all together to produce work that looks like ‘The Decameron‘ and ‘The Enchanted Garden‘. He (sort of) fuses the classical and the interests of the Pre-Raphaelites.
So in looking at the pictures we can pick up hallmarks from both those styles. You’ve got quite formal compositions, the way the pictures are laid out in both ………………….. 31; yet you’ve got this sort of wonderful intense …………………………………. 32 and detail that you would normally associate with the Pre-Raphaelite artists. So you know you can just pick out those stylistic attributes in both works.
Now Waterhouse was very interested in depicting tales from …………………………………. 33 history and literature. Very much like the Pre-Raphaelite artists. I …………………………………. 34 that one of the titles of the Burne-Jones paintings you can see is ‘The Beguiling of Merlin‘ and we’ve got works by Millais which represent (sort of) medieval scenes and stories. And that also interested Waterhouse and he (sort of, you know,) picked on those subjects but gave them a (sort of) classical leaning in the way he composed the …………………………………. 35.
Here in these two pictures he’s basing (erm) his illustrations on works by the very famous Italian medieval writer Giovanni Boccaccio. And he’s linked two aspects of this famous work ‘The Decameron‘ by Boccaccio. The work was …………………………………. 36 in around 1350, when Florence had been subject to the ………………………….. 37 and Boccaccio ……………………… ……. 38 a story where ten young people flee the city to escape the plague. Seven young …………………………………. 39 and three young men and they go out into the countryside and whilst there they …………………………………. 40 each other with various tasks and songs and storytelling to pass the time. To make the time go more quickly.