Reading and Interpretation Exercise

Reading and Interpretation Exercise: Musee des Beaux Arts: Auden (1939)

Pg. 36-38

Melody Nipper

1.     The subject of the first line is The Old Masters.

2.     The Old Masters are found in the second line.

3.     The words in the sentence are not in the correct order.

4.     Auden is trying to say that life goes on, despite a catastrophic event.

5.     Auden’s argument is that people turn their head away from tragedy.

6.     Auden makes his argument by pointing to evidence in the picture.

7.     Auden’s evidence is the people who turn their heads from Icarus.

8.     The title is in French and it means the Museum of Beautiful Arts.

9.     The Old Masters include: Breughel, DaVinci, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo.

10.                        This is capitalized because it is respectful to the great artists.

11.                         You could find out more by searching it on Google.

12.                        Auden develops his argument from starting at general and moving to specific details.

13.                         “Breughel’s Icarus” is a painting portraying the myth Icarus.

14.                         The thesis he is arguing is generally that people turn away from tragedy.

15.                        I agree with Auden’s argument because people are involved in themselves and do not want to deal with disaster if it does not exactly involve them.

16.                         Auden’s result may be affected by the major historical events and the response to those events.

17.                         Auden’s views were affected by the Concentration Camps and the way that the other countries reacted to them.

18.                         Auden said that the Old Masters were never wrong because the Old Masters especially Rembrandt suffered.

19.                         The Old Masters are held to such esteem because they are able to connect with pain and suffering and reflect that suffering in their art work.

20.                         This is the case because they can sympathize and empathize with them.

21.                         Auden’s presence in a museum does affect his views about what he sees because it is the Old Masters and the painting are of pain and suffering.

22.                         He uses “Brueghel’s Icarus” to support his thesis by pointing out examples within the picture. Such as, “everything turns away quite leisurely from the disaster.”  

23.                        The Old Masters had similar historical context to Auden which accounts for the way that he views the painting by not feeling accepted himself along with the Old Masters.

24.                        Different styles and looking at the art differently allow for a different interpretation of The Old Masters.

25.                         Painting can help convey a message that can be read by the value, color, and light that is used within the painting.

26.                         Using the title we would expect to see a description of an art museum.

27.                        We see an explanation of a single painting and the author’s view of the world and the people in it.

28.                        What we see dominates over what we would expect to see.

29.                        The painting composition makes us see Icarus last which outlines the story behind the painting and poem; the color does the same by making the painting very dark where Icarus is in the water.

30.                         Icarus is small and is in the ship’s shadow.

31.                        He is so small to portray the central meaning and illustrate the way human beings react to tragedy.

32.                         The people in this painting are ignoring the tragedy they are just looking away.

33.                         Auden said, “How everything turns away,” is the exact example from the painting.

34.                        Auden’s interpretation is good because based on his examples and looking at the painting they are true.

35.                         Historically the painting takes place a long time ago which portrays a way in which the culture was different.

36.                         No his interpretation was wrong because in the myth it says that the people stood there amazed rather than turned away.

37.                        To find out for sure we need to read the original source.

38.                        The scene is different because in the myth the people are standing there amazed.

39.                         Ovid’s view is so much different because is so much different because it is from another time period.

40.                         I the 1^st century B.C.E. many empires were coming to life such as Greece and Rome.

41.                         This could have affected his story telling because the Grecians were fascinated by stories and myths and would have found this amazing.

42.                         I personally enjoyed the works the picture and poem.

43.                        I feel that there is truth to both the poem and the painting.

44.                        The works predominately interests me.

45.                         I would respond by asking him a lot of question in regard to the piece of work.