Don Turner

Later it was his Virgin and Child, and large religious compositions, to his own time, that will ensure his lifetime a reputation as a remarkable artist.
Who is the receiver?

The public of his time at first, then today all lovers of painting of the seventeenth century, those who love the genre of still life painting, the curious, cultured people, etc..
What is the status of this table?

It is a work known and recognized by fans and scholars of art. It is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
In what language variety is needed to talk about?

The communication here first by the non-verbal, that is to say by the shapes, colors, objects represented. But it will “translate” it into words: terminology and common terms.
Implicit cultural: they are very numerous here.

History and religion at the time this picture was painted, France, troubled for decades by religious wars, gradually found political stability and religious thanks to Louis XIII and Richelieu. Christianity – Catholic – is the king and the majority of his subjects.

Cultural life: it is active and rich theater (Corneille), literature (Agrippa d’Aubigné, Theophile de Viau), baroque music and singing are very popular.

“On the delicate arrangements of the lute, voice,” ordinary ambassador of our souls “, stands, colorful ornaments singing, decreases on constantly trying to touch the man in prayer or in the festival, govern “for war and for recreation,” seeking to move the body in dance and the expression of passion. It is painted in the paintings of Poussin and Vignon, and it reads in St. Augustine “Your truth, Lord , is flowed through these sounds so sweet and pleasant to my heart. “Art? Science? The more intangible achievements of man becomes the object of research the most sophisticated” in Perspectives on music at the time of Louis XIII, Jean Duron (Editions Mardaga).

See also the beautiful French film by Alain Corneau, 1991: Every morning the world . Music (viola da gamba) is Marin Marais, musician Louis XIV (available on DVD).

Manners: While the Church (the players at risk of excommunication) and King condemn or disapprove of a certain part of society play games and pleasures priced. See other paintings of the seventeenth century like for example The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds Georges de La Tour (1635) and The Go-Vermeer of Delft (1656).
Linguistic approach, textual and discursive

On the lexical level: the teacher must master in order to pass it on to his students, a glossary or lexicon based on the painting (see the title of the lexicon proposed by Straight Talk and the site of the association of museum curators Pas de Calais)

On the text: to be able to prepare a detailed questioning, the teacher must know the main regularities of the descriptive text. Include:
the presence of related terms with the five senses stars (teaching) in the categories of verbs, nouns and adjectives and adverbs.
the presence of the term of the comparison (as, like) and metaphor – this when, alone, the second element of the comparison is expressed, such as a “diamond sky” mean the stars (part 1) that shine like diamonds in the sky (part 2);
using the term indicating a place: prepositions (in, on, above, beside, between X and Y, etc..) spatial adverbs or phrases (right, left, above, below in the foreground to the background, etc.).
the use of this or imperfect.
(NB. We can describe the present, imperfect, and even the future …)
verbs of state (be, seem, sound, etc.). or value of state verbs (eg. the verb to fall into a phrase like “a light falls from the stars”).
On the discursive

a) it will be necessary to resort to different methods of REFORMULATION as will the inevitable passage of pictorial code to code oral and / or written: cf. transcoding (in particular the work of Jean Peytard). It will include the use of “connectors metadiscursive”, or simply called: that is to say, in other words, in a sense, X means Y, X is Y, X called / named also mean, and so on.

b) it will likely include the use of deictic people (I, you) and / or spatial and temporal (cf. enunciation). Eg The student describes the table can say: I see, I ‘perceive, etc.. or you can see, you can see where you can see, you can see. He must use words or adverbs of place as here, there, right (to the right of that?), Etc.. These words used so often only make sense in reality than on the communication situation in which it will be. Warning: this is not to do a course on the theory of enunciation, but, by contrast, power, and as far as progress, suggest formulations and can provide context and language tools appropriate ways to express themselves.

c) it will include the use of “TERMS appreciation” to express an opinion, positive or negative opinion. Example: This table is beautiful / beautiful it seems to me / I find this amazing canvas / canvas that is incomprehensible to me / the colors are beautiful / all is elegant, and so on.

d) any recourse to the arguments and some connectors argumentative. And so on. (We will not address this point, but be sure to check out the selection of sites proposed by the education portal Weblettres letters on this subject: 1 and 2 ).