Stuff of dreams
夢(mèng)想的精粹
Feb 16th 2006 |
From The Economist print edition
（譯者注：本文是關(guān)于畫展的評(píng)論。）
Two exhibitions show how a pair of 18th-century painters, James Barry and Henry Fuseli, inspired the modern visual ★romance with[1] the gothic
兩個(gè)畫展展示的是，兩位18世紀(jì)畫家——詹姆斯·巴里和亨利·富塞利——如何喚起了現(xiàn)代人從視覺上對(duì)哥特式藝術(shù)的憧憬。
今春，英國藝術(shù)界的壞孩子再次粉墨登場(chǎng)了。我們說的不是達(dá)米恩·赫斯特和他的朋友們，而是亨利·富塞利（1741-1825）和詹姆斯·巴里（1741-1806），這兩位“莽撞少年”的始作俑者，他們的首要目標(biāo)就是要用所謂的“新派高尚藝術(shù)”去描繪極度激情與恐怖。
Barry and Fuseli are hardly household names; indeed since Victorian times they have been virtually ignored. But in the late 18th century, Fuseli, and for a short time Barry also, were prominent members of the young Royal Academy of Arts (RA) and influential professors of painting there. Barry's ★fall from grace[5] was the most dramatic, but there is much to admire in this irascible Irish artist who, like Fuseli, once taught William Blake. Barry's prolific historical paintings demonstrate his ambition to rival the painters of antiquity and the Renaissance and to practise what the then president of the RA, Sir Joshua Reynolds, always preached—that history painting was the noblest form of art. （1）But Barry found it hard to be bound by rules, and he turned history and myth into a series of ★tableaux[6] that were at once oddly expressionistic and deeply personal.巴里和富塞利這兩個(gè)名字算不上家喻戶曉，實(shí)際上自維多利亞時(shí)代以來，世人對(duì)他們已經(jīng)不聞不問。不過，在18世紀(jì)晚期，富塞利曾經(jīng)是早期皇家美術(shù)學(xué)院（RA）的杰出會(huì)員和頗具影響力的畫師，巴里曾一度也是如此。巴里的失寵于眾最富于戲劇性，但跟富塞利一樣曾給威廉·布萊克傳授過技藝的這位性情暴躁的愛爾蘭藝術(shù)家，還是擁有許多讓人敬佩的地方。他的眾多歷史性畫作都表明，他熱望與古代以及文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期的畫家相抗衡，始終信奉歷史畫乃是最為尊貴的藝術(shù)形式，而這恰恰也是皇家美術(shù)學(xué)院當(dāng)時(shí)的院長約書亞·雷諾茲爵士所一直倡導(dǎo)的。但是歷史畫受制于過多約束讓巴里感到難以接受，遂將史實(shí)與神話融為一體，并用一系列舞臺(tái)造型加以表現(xiàn)，隨即成為與主流格格不入的表現(xiàn)派，并打上了深深的個(gè)人主義烙印。
His melodramatic “King Lear Weeping over the Body of Cordelia” and his sexually charged “★Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida[7]”, now both part of a retrospective of the artist's work in Cork, （2）proved too full of feeling for a British audience raised on portraits and landscape paintings. His only loyal patron was Edmund Burke, who had ★coined[8] a theory of the Sublime.
巴里的情景畫《淚灑科蒂利亞亡體的李爾王》以及他那幅洋溢著性愛的《艾達(dá)峰上的朱庇特和朱諾》，現(xiàn)已成為科克城（愛爾蘭南部港口城市）藝術(shù)家作品回顧展的一部分。這兩幅畫作表明英國觀眾對(duì)肖像畫和風(fēng)景畫投注了極大的熱情。埃德蒙·伯克是唯一自始至終資助巴里的人，正是他創(chuàng)立了“高尚藝術(shù)”理論。
Barry felt he was a persecuted soul, and he painted himself as various ill-fated characters, most bizarrely ★Philoctetes[9], the sailor whom Odysseus abandoned on the island of Lemnos because he smelled so bad. As if that weren't enough, Barry also incited his RA students to revolt and then allegedly accused Reynolds of financial impropriety. When he became too unbearable, Barry became the first artist to be expelled by the academy.
巴里認(rèn)為自己的靈魂受到了戕害，便將自己畫成形形色色充滿晦氣的人物，其中最為怪異的是菲羅克忒忒斯，那位由于臭氣熏天而被奧德修斯拋棄在利姆諾斯島上的水手。似乎這還不夠，巴里還鼓動(dòng)他在皇家美術(shù)學(xué)院的學(xué)生造反，而且據(jù)說后來甚至指控雷諾茲在財(cái)政上存在違法問題。巴里變得越來越讓人忍無可忍，于是成了第一個(gè)被學(xué)院開除的藝術(shù)家。
Barry knew Fuseli, and （3）he makes a minor appearance in “Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination”, the ★brainchild[10] of an engaging British ★polymath[11], Sir Christopher Frayling, who heads the Arts Council of England and the Royal College of Art. Sir Christopher has long been fascinated by the horror ★genre[12]—he once presented a popular television programme on the topic—and his favourite painting is Fuseli's “The Nightmare” (pictured above), an unsettling image of a sleeping maiden, with an ★incubus[13] ★perched[14] on her stomach and a ★ghoulish[15] horse peering through a curtain.
巴里認(rèn)識(shí)富塞利，作為特邀嘉賓參加了《哥特式夢(mèng)魘——富塞利、布萊克和浪漫主義幻想》畫展。那次畫展是由英格蘭藝術(shù)理事會(huì)和皇家藝術(shù)學(xué)院主席、富于號(hào)召力的英國人克里斯托弗·弗雷林爵士策劃的?？死锼雇懈ゾ羰块L期以來癡迷恐怖藝術(shù)——曾以此為主題推出一檔頗受歡迎的電視節(jié)目——他最鐘愛的畫作是富塞利的《夢(mèng)魘》（上圖），畫中描繪的是一位熟睡的女人，腹部上棲息著一個(gè)夢(mèng)淫惡鬼，而布簾后面一匹長得像食尸鬼一般的馬正探頭窺視，整幅畫看了讓人感到心神不寧。
Sir Christopher sees this painting, together with Fuseli's scenes from Milton and Shakespeare, as part of a search for national myths in the late 18th century. （4）Indeed, his interpretation illuminates an Enlightenment world that hovered between reason and ★bigotry[16], and where a quasi-scientific interest in the ★occult[17] and the emerging genre of the novel fed a public that was hungry for “tales of wonder”.
克里斯托弗爵士認(rèn)為，富塞利的這幅畫以及取材于密爾頓和莎士比亞作品的那些畫作，乃是探尋18世紀(jì)民族神話的一部分。事實(shí)上，他的這一評(píng)注為糾纏在理智與偏見之間的“教化世界”帶來了曙光。在這樣一個(gè)“教化世界”中，對(duì)玄妙之事的半帶科學(xué)性的熱誠和涌現(xiàn)出的相關(guān)小說流派，讓大眾對(duì)“驚愕故事”的渴求得到了極大滿足。
Unlike Barry, Fuseli—a former preacher who was forced to leave his native Zurich—looked rationally at the London art scene. He saw that（5）the only way to compete for “wall power” at the all-important annual exhibition of the RA was to carve out his own niche, the more eye-catching and ★esoteric[18] the better. In 1782 Fuseli exhibited “The Nightmare” for the first time, drawing record crowds of up to 3,000 people a day. Perplexed critics asked what the painting was about. In an age when art was supposed to depict an actual person or event, （6）it came as a shock that this was a painting not of a nightmare, but of the nightmare as a generalized experience.
當(dāng)過傳教士后來被迫離開祖國瑞士的富塞利跟巴里不一樣，他較為理智地看待倫敦藝術(shù)境況。他發(fā)現(xiàn)，要想在至關(guān)重要的皇家美術(shù)學(xué)院年度畫展上爭(zhēng)取到“支持力量”，只有標(biāo)新立異，越引人注目、越生澀越好。1782年，富塞利首次展出《夢(mèng)魘》一作，每天觀摩者創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄地達(dá)到3000人。批評(píng)家們對(duì)畫中所要表現(xiàn)的主題感到百思不得其解。在一個(gè)藝術(shù)被認(rèn)為應(yīng)該是描寫真人真事的年代，這幅畫的誕生讓世人感到震驚：它并不單單是對(duì)一般惡夢(mèng)的簡(jiǎn)單描繪，而是對(duì)惡夢(mèng)體驗(yàn)的一次真實(shí)再現(xiàn)。
Interestingly, it was not until 1793 that anyone suggested publicly that the painting of a scantily ★clad[19] woman stretched out on a bed might be about sex. In a post-Freud world, it is impossible to look at “The Nightmare” and see anything else.（7） There is a soft-porn ★perversity[20] about many of Fuseli's muscular super-heroes and ★nubile[21] ★nymphs[22], particularly his Titania from “A Midsummer Night's Dream”. The ★erotic[23] drawings and prints by him and his pupil Theodor von Holst are so explicit that the Tate has hung a veil between them and Fuseli's popular fairy paintings nearby, which are a favourite with children.
有意思的是，直到1793年才有人公開指出，這幅畫上的女人幾乎一絲不掛地躺在床上，因此可能與性有關(guān)。在后弗洛伊德時(shí)代，盯著《夢(mèng)魘》而又不想入非非是不可能的。富塞利畫中肌肉結(jié)實(shí)的超級(jí)英雄和含苞欲放的美麗少女，尤其是取材于《仲夏夜之夢(mèng)》的泰坦尼亞，模糊的色情描繪讓人多少有些心慌意亂。由于富塞利及其學(xué)生霍爾斯特的素描和版畫色情描繪過于直接，泰特美術(shù)館就懸掛起一塊幕布，將在這些畫與近旁富塞利那些迎合大眾的、尤其是孩子們最愛看的仙女畫隔開。
Unsurprisingly, Fuseli's work was ★vilified[24] by the Victorians, and he came back into favour only when the Surrealists—（8）★enthralled[25] by his weird mix of deviance, death and dreams—claimed him as a hero. Today, the artist who bred his own moths in order to depict them accurately in his fairy paintings hangs in the same gallery as those other attention-seekers, Mr Hirst and Tracey Emin; it is almost as if he were their long-lost ancestor.
富塞利的作品遭到了維多利亞女王時(shí)代藝術(shù)家們的非難，這是意料之中的事。直到超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義者――集反社會(huì)、死亡、幻想等詭異元素于一身的富塞利令他們著迷――稱之為英雄的時(shí)候，他這才重新受寵。如今，這位為了準(zhǔn)確描繪仙女畫中的飛蛾而親自養(yǎng)殖的藝術(shù)家，同其他那些萬眾矚目的人如赫斯特、特雷西·艾明一樣，也進(jìn)入了美術(shù)陳列室，看上去就像是這些人的鼻祖。
While Fuseli's rehabilitation is admirable, the Tate's obsession with inclusiveness dilutes Sir Christopher's ideas. （9）Viewers are overloaded with ★mawkish[26] pictures that the curators call “Gothic gloomth”, borrowing a phrase from Horace Walpole. Instead of rising to Sir Christopher's wide-ranging themes, which link Fuseli and Blake with other great European painters, including Goya and Caspar David Friedrich, the Tate has taken a ★parochial[27] view, showing virtually every mediocre British artist who ever ★dabbled[28] in gothic fantasy. Thankfully James Gillray is also there, and his ★biting[29] caricatures lift the spirits.
雖然富塞利的重振旗鼓令人肅然起敬，但堅(jiān)持包羅萬象的泰特美術(shù)館還是弱化了克里斯托弗的觀念。眾多索然無味的繪畫充斥著觀眾的視野，美術(shù)館長們引用賀瑞斯·沃波爾的一條成語，把這些畫稱作“哥特式晦暗”?？死锼雇懈ゾ羰砍缟械闹黝}廣泛，將富塞利、布萊克同包括戈亞、卡斯帕·戴維·弗雷德里希在內(nèi)的歐洲其他杰出畫家有機(jī)結(jié)合在一起，但泰特美術(shù)館卻反其道而行之，幾乎展出了所有和哥特式幻想沾點(diǎn)邊、不入流的英國藝術(shù)家的作品，其眼界之狹窄可見一斑。令人欣慰的是，這里面也包括了詹姆斯·基爾雷，他的諷刺畫發(fā)人深省，令人精神振奮。
The last room is one of the best.（10） Here Sir Christopher has added his cross-cultural ★hallmark[30]: a series of horror film clips that invoke Fuseli's “The Nightmare” as the ultimate shock-horror icon. And at the exit, Angela Carter's words, “We live in gothic times”, are emblazoned on the wall. The spirit of Barry and Fuseli lives on.
最后一間是最好的展室之一，克里斯托弗爵士的“跨文化”印記在此得以展現(xiàn)，那就是一系列以富塞利《夢(mèng)魘》為最終驚悚形象的恐怖電影短片。并且，在展室出口處的墻上，安吉拉·卡特的名言“我們生活在哥特式時(shí)代”也赫然在目。巴里和富塞利的精神常駐人間。
★★★注釋★★★
[1]romance with：對(duì)……的迷戀、向往
如：a childhood romance with the sea 兒時(shí)對(duì)大海的浪漫向往（憧憬）
[2]make a comeback: 恢復(fù)、復(fù)原（指名譽(yù)、地位、知名度、流行性）
如：The film star made an unexpected comeback. 這位電影明星出人意料地復(fù)出了。
[3]enfant terrible：莽漢（因其令人驚愕的不合傳統(tǒng)的行為、工作或思想而使他人困窘或驚慌的人）；復(fù)數(shù)形式為enfants terribles
如：The radical painter was the enfant terrible of the art establishment.激進(jìn)派畫家是藝術(shù)當(dāng)權(quán)派的可怕莽漢
[4]亨利·富塞利，生于瑞士的英國畫家，作品包括惡夢(mèng) （1781年），風(fēng)格怪誕恐怖，對(duì)20世紀(jì)二三十年代的超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義者有一定影響
[5]fall from grace: 失去天恩，墮落（名譽(yù)、地位的貶低）
[6]tableaux: 舞臺(tái)造型,(由活人扮演的)靜態(tài)畫面、場(chǎng)面
[7]Jubiter：朱庇特（古羅馬的保護(hù)神）；另：木星
Juno：：羅馬萬神廟里最主要的女神，朱庇特的妻子亦是其姐姐，主司婚姻和婦女的安康；
Mount Ida：艾達(dá)峰，克里特島中部一山峰，海拔
[8]coin：設(shè)計(jì)，杜撰（新詞語）
如：Do not coin terms that are intelligible to nobody.不要生造誰也不懂的詞語。
[9]Philoctetes：菲羅克忒忒斯，希臘神話中人物，在特洛伊戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中用其父大力神Hercules所遺之弓和毒箭殺死特洛伊王子Paris的英雄
[10]brainchild：指計(jì)劃,想法,創(chuàng)作等腦力勞動(dòng)的創(chuàng)造物
[11]polymath：學(xué)識(shí)淵博的人
[12]genre：類型，流派（文藝作品）
[13]incubus：陰庫巴斯惡鬼，夢(mèng)淫妖（據(jù)說會(huì)趁女人熟睡壓而在女人身上并與其交配的惡鬼）；夢(mèng)魘；沉重負(fù)擔(dān)
[14]perch：v. 棲息，棲止
如：Birds perched on the branch.鳥停在樹枝上。
[15]ghoulish：adj.食尸鬼似的，殘忍的 ghoul：n.食尸鬼；盜尸者
[16]bigotry：n.固執(zhí)，頑固，偏見
[17]occult：n.神秘學(xué)，神秘之事，玄妙之事
[18]esoteric：adj.深?yuàn)W的，秘傳的，不公開披露的
如：Some words are really too esoteric for this dictionary. 有些單詞實(shí)在太生僻了,未收入本詞典內(nèi)。
[19]clad：穿衣的，覆蓋著的
如：The woods on the mountain sides were clad in mist.高山坡上的小樹林都籠罩在一片薄霧中。
[20]perversity：n.反常；剛愎，任性；錯(cuò)亂
[21]nubile：adj.適于結(jié)婚的，到結(jié)婚年齡的；性成熟的
[22]nymph：n.美少女；居于山林水澤的仙女；羅馬神話中寧芙女神
[23]erotic：adj.性欲的，好色的，色情的
[24]vilify：v.污蔑；詆毀；誹謗；辱罵
[25]enthrall：v.迷住，著迷
如：The boy was enthralled by the stories of adventure.這孩子被冒險(xiǎn)故事迷住了。
[26]mawkish：adj.自作多情的，多愁善感的；令人作嘔的，令人厭惡的
[27]parochial：adj.教區(qū)的；眼界狹窄的，地方性的
[28]dabble：v.涉水，涉足 dabble in：涉獵，涉足；不經(jīng)意做……
如：She just dabbles in chemistry.她只不過是隨便搞一下化學(xué)。
[29]biting：adj.尖銳的，尖刻的；刺痛的
如：His remark has a biting edge to it.他的評(píng)語非常尖銳。
[30]hallmark：n.標(biāo)記；特點(diǎn)
如：The sense of guilt is the hallmark of civilized humanity.犯罪感是文明人顯而易見的特征。
[31]emblazon：v.用紋章裝飾，醒目裝飾；頌揚(yáng)
★★★磚已拋，玉何在？★★★（見文中劃線部分）
（1） But Barry found it hard to be bound by rules, and he turned history and myth into a series of tableaux that were at once oddly expressionistic and deeply personal.
（2） proved too full of feeling for a British audience raised on portraits and landscape paintings.
（3） he makes a minor appearance in “Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination”
（4） Indeed, his interpretation illuminates an Enlightenment world that hovered between reason and bigotry, and where a quasi-scientific interest in the occult and the emerging genre of the novel fed a public that was hungry for “tales of wonder”.
（5） the only way to compete for “wall power” at the all-important annual exhibition of the RA was to carve out his own niche, the more eye-catching and esoteric the better.
（6） it came as a shock that this was a painting not of a nightmare, but of the nightmare as a generalized experience.
（7） There is a soft-porn perversity about many of Fuseli's muscular super-heroes and nubile nymphs, particularly his Titania from “A Midsummer Night's Dream”.
（8） enthralled by his weird mix of deviance, death and dreams
（9） Viewers are overloaded with mawkish pictures that the curators call “Gothic gloomth”, borrowing a phrase from Horace Walpole.
（10） Here Sir Christopher has added his cross-cultural hallmark: a series of horror film clips that invoke Fuseli's “The Nightmare” as the ultimate shock-horror icon.
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