Watch the episode again and fill in the gaps with the missing information. Write no more than THREE words.

00:02 - It’s an absolutely wonderful little picture. It ______________________ it. The girl’s face, that beautiful face __________ with light, is _____________. You have to stand here, you feel, you realize that Vermeer’s actually _______________ you, he’s turned you into an ____________, a ___________ on a seventeenth-century scene. But what is it that you’re actually looking at?

There’s a _________________________ quality to the light and the way it _____________ the young woman’s face, ___________ an __________________ of the contact between a man and a woman, erotic, but I think, also full of _____________. As so often in Vermeer, ____________ of the picture are very wildly: the man’s a soldier, and some say the girl’s a prostitute, the map behind her signifying her _________, and therefore ___________, nature. I ____________. I think it’s a picture about the look of love, the instant when two people ______________ each other. I wonder if Vermeer __________ _______ his own memories of falling in love with his beloved Catherina. Perhaps the light __________ her just like this. I think painting was his way of trying to _____________________________ in life that have real value, real meaning.

It’s an absolutely wonderful little picture. It draws you towards it. The girl’s face, that beautiful face flooded with light, is like a beacon. You have to stand here, you feel, you realize that Vermeer’s actually choreographed you, he’s turned you into an eavesdropper, a voyeur on a seventeenth-century scene. But what is it that you’re actually looking at?

There’s a tremblinglyimmediate quality to the light and the way it strikes the young woman’s face, generatingan electric sense of the contact between a man and a woman, erotic, but I think, also full of tenderness. As so often in Vermeer, interpretations of the picture are very wildly: the man’s a soldier, and some say the girl’s a prostitute, the map behind her signifying her worldly, and therefore corrupt, nature. I don’t buy that. I think it’s a picture about the look of love, the instant when two people fall for each other. I wonder if Vermeer drew on his own memories of falling in love with his beloved Catherina. Perhaps the light struck her just like this. I think painting was his way of trying to preserve those rare moments in life that have real value, real meaning.

(eavesdrop -to listen secretly to the private conversation of others; a voyeur – smb. who enjoys watching other people’s private life)

5 Check you know the meanings of the words and phrases given in the box, make use of them when covering the information provided in the episode:

Teachers’ Notes: Choose any of the items for scripting as a home assignment.

1. Rembrandt versus Vermeer. The mystery that Vermeer creates in the picture The Letter.

stay-at-home self-proclaiming restless be loyal thrust oneself on rugged handling warts and all mirror-like his compulsion catch the light at crossroads

(stay-at-home - enjoying a quiet, settled, and unadventurous use of leisure; compulsion – a strong and unreasonable desire difficult to control; warts and all – including all the faults and unpleasant things)

1. A camera obscura in Vermeer’s art.

be down to technique to go to great lengths to back up the confines of a box a walk-in cupboard sealed off silent images to eliminate line in terms of a means to an end to master space

sealed off – запечатанный, запаянный; a means to an end – средство для достижения цели, предлог; не конечная цель; control freak - a person with an obsessive need to be in control of what is happening; to go to great lengths – to be willing to use any methods to achieve smth.

1. Jorgen Wadum, conservator, about the restorations of Vermeer’s paintings.

X-ray radiography infrared spectroscopy in the foreground to cause wrinkling small black spots to remove the grunge to subdue the brightness reflections of moisture

1. The disturbing years of 1662 and 1663 in Vermeer’s family.

at the height of overpriced to have no stock to burst back to thrust at smb to come to rescue to be committed to to repeat the patterns of the past

1. The enigma of Vermeer’s art.

to road-test luminous paintings to depict the textures crumbling homage to smb to have a direct influence a tempestuous domestic life in the background

(road-test -to test (something) in a real and appropriate context; tempestuous - violent or stormy; luminous - radiating or reflecting light; shining; homage - a public show of respect or honour towards someone or something)

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