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II. The Unity Of Art
二、艺术的统一

Part of an Address (I was prevented by press of other engagements, from preparing this address with the care I wished; and forced to trust such expression as I could give at the moment to the points of principal importance; reading, however, the close of the preceding lecture, which I thought contained some truths that would bear repetition. The whole was reported, better than it deserved, by Mr. Pitman, of the Manchester Courier, and published nearly verbatim. I have here extracted, from the published report, the facts which I wish especially to enforce; and have a little cleared their expression; its loose and colloquial character I cannot now help, unless by re-writing the whole, which it seems not worth while to do.) delivered at Manchester, 14th March, 1859.

1859年3月14日曼彻斯特演讲的一部分(由于当时有其他事务需要处理,我未能像自己希望的那样精心准备这次演讲,不得不依赖当时我可以给出的表达来阐述最重要的几点。但是,请仔细读一下上篇演讲的结尾部分,我认为其中有一些需要重复的真理。整篇演讲由皮特曼先生报道在《曼彻斯特通讯》上,几乎是一字不差,这远远超过了它应有的价值。我从发表的报道中,选取了一些我希望特别强调的事实,稍微整理了一下语言表述,对于这篇演讲松散、口语化的特点,我现在也无能为力。除非把整篇文章重新写一遍,但好像这样做又不值得。——作者注)

IT is sometimes my pleasant duty to visit other cities, in the hope of being able to encourage their art students; but here it is my pleasanter privilege to come for encouragement myself. I do not know when I have received so much as from the report read this evening by Mr. Hammersley, bearing upon a subject which has caused me great anxiety. For I have always felt in my own pursuit of art, and in my endeavors to urge the pursuit of art on others, that while there are many advantages now that never existed before, there are certain grievous difficulties existing, just in the very cause that is giving the stimulus to art—in the immense spread of the manufactures of every country which is now attending vigorously to art. We find that manufacture and art are now going on always together; that where there is no manufacture there is no art. I know how much there is of pretended art where there is no manufacture: there is much in Italy, for instance; no country makes so bold pretence to the production of new art as Italy at this moment; yet no country produces so little. If you glance over the map of Europe, you will find that where the manufactures are strongest, there art also is strongest. And yet I always felt that there was an immense difficulty to be encountered by the students who were in these centres of modern movement. They had to avoid the notion that art and manufacture were in any respect one. Art may be healthily associated with manufacture, and probably in future will always be so; but the student must be strenuously warned against supposing that they can ever be one and the same thing, that art can ever be followed on the principles of manufacture. Each must be followed separately; the one must influence the other, but each must be kept distinctly separate from the other.

访问其他城市,有时对我来说是件愉快的事情,因为期待着能鼓励这些城市学艺术的学生。而更愉快的是,这次能荣幸地来到这里,这是对我自己的鼓励。我没有想到,能从今晚哈默斯利先生朗读的报告中得到如此多的收获,这篇报告触及了一个给我带来极大困扰的话题。在自己追求艺术的过程中以及在我努力推动别人追求艺术的过程中,我一直觉得虽然现在艺术有很多过去从未有过的优势,但同时也存在一些令人担忧的困难,而困难恰恰出在刺激艺术发展的因素上——生产制造业在各个国家得到极大传播,现在正在神采奕奕地伸向艺术。我们发现制造业和艺术现在总是并行发展;没有制造业的地方就没有艺术。我知道没有制造业的地方,有很多伪艺术,比如意大利就有很多;现在,没有哪个国家像意大利一样,如此厚颜地假装出产新的艺术,产量却如此低。如果你看一看欧洲地图,你就会发现制造业最发达的地方,当地的艺术也最发达。而且我以前总认为身处这些现代运动中心的学生们将面临一个巨大的难题。他们必须避免在任何一方面将艺术和制造混为一谈的想法。艺术可能会与制造业有益地联系起来,而且未来很可能会一直联系起来;但是,必须有人来竭尽全力地对学生提出忠告,不要让学生以为两者是同一种或同样的事物,制造业的原则同样适用于艺术。两者遵循的原则必须是独立的;一者必然会影响另一者,但彼此又必须清清楚楚地分开。

It would be well if all students would keep clearly in their mind the real distinction between those words which we use so often, "Manufacture," "Art," and "Fine Art." "MANUFACTURE" is, according to the etymology and right use of the word, "the making of anything by hands,"—directly or indirectly, with or without the help of instruments or machines. Anything proceeding from the hand of man is manufacture; but it must have proceeded from his hand only, acting mechanically, and uninfluenced at the moment by direct intelligence.

如果所有的学生都能在头脑中清楚地分辨“制造”、“艺术”、“美艺术”这些常用词之间的真正区别,那就是个好现象。根据词源学和词语的正确使用意义,“制造”是指“手工制作”——直接地或间接地,借助或不借助工具或机器。任何出自人类之手的东西都是制成品,但必须是仅仅用手机械地生产,并且同时没有受到直接智慧的影响。

Then, secondly, ART is the operation of the hand and the intelligence of man together; there is an art of making machinery; there is an art of building ships; an art of making carriages; and so on. All these, properly called Arts, but not Fine Arts, are pursuits in which the hand of man and his head go together, working at the same instant.

第二个词,“艺术”是人的双手和智慧的协作运行;有生产机器的艺术,有建造船舰的艺术,有制造四轮马车的艺术,等等。所有这些,被恰当地称为艺术,但不是美艺术。这些都是人的双手和头脑一起运转、同时工作所追求的艺术。

Then FINE ART is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

然后,“美艺术”是人的双手、头脑和心灵共同的成果。

Recollect this triple group; it will help you to solve many difficult problems. And remember that though the hand must be at the bottom of everything, it must also go to the top of everything; for Fine Art must be produced by the hand of man in a much greater and clearer sense than manufacture is. Fine Art must always be produced by the subtlest of all machines, which is the human hand. No machine yet contrived, or hereafter contrivable, will ever equal the fine machinery of the human fingers. Thoroughly perfect art is that which proceeds from the heart, which involves all the noble emotions;—associates with these the head, yet as inferior to the heart; and the hand, yet as inferior to the heart and head; and thus brings out the whole man.

记住这三个术语,这能帮你解决很多难题。还要记住,手是每件物品产生的基础,每件物品必须依赖手才能成为艺术品,因为与制造业相比,美艺术需要更高超、更精纯的手工。美艺术必须由最精细的机器来制造,也就是人类的双手。已有的和将来能发明出来的任何机器都比不上人类的手指。最完美的艺术产生于心灵,包含所有高尚的情感——仅次于心灵的是大脑创作出的艺术;再次一些的是双手创作出的艺术;三者一起呈现出完整的人。

Hence it follows that since Manufacture is simply the operation of the hand of man in producing that which is useful to him, it essentially separates itself from the emotions; when emotions interfere with machinery they spoil it: machinery must go evenly, without emotion. But the Fine Arts cannot go evenly; they always must have emotion ruling their mechanism, and until the pupil begins to feel, and until all he does associates itself with the current of his feeling, he is not an artist. But pupils in all the schools in this country are now exposed to all kinds of temptations which blunt their feelings. I constantly feel discouraged in addressing them because I know not how to tell them boldly what they ought to do, when I feel how practically difficult it is for them to do it. There are all sorts of demands made upon them in every direction, and money is to be made in every conceivable way but the right way. If you paint as you ought, and study as you ought, depend upon it the public will take no notice of you for a long while. If you study wrongly, and try to draw the attention of the public upon you, —supposing you to be clever students—you will get swift reward; but the reward does not come fast when it is sought wisely; it is always held aloof for a little while; the right roads of early life are very quiet ones, hedged in from nearly all help or praise. But the wrong roads are noisy, —vociferous everywhere with all kinds of demand upon you for art which is not properly art at all; and in the various meetings of modern interests, money is to be made in every way; but art is to be followed only in one way. That is what I want mainly to say to you, or if not to you yourselves (for, from what I have heard from your excellent master to-night, I know you are going on all rightly), you must let me say it through you to others. Our Schools of Art are confused by the various teaching and various interests that are now abroad among us. Everybody is talking about art, and writing about it, and more or less interested in it; everybody wants art, and there is not art for everybody, and few who talk know what they are talking about; thus students are led in all variable ways, while there is only one way in which they can make steady progress, for true art is always and will be always one. Whatever changes may be made in the customs of society, whatever new machines we may invent, whatever new manufactures we may supply, Fine Art must remain what it was two thousand years ago, in the days of Phidias; two thousand years hence, it will be, in all its principles, and in all its great effects upon the mind of man, just the same. Observe this that I say, please, carefully, for I mean it to the very utmost. There is but one right way of doing any given thing required of an artist; there may be a hundred wrong, deficient, or mannered ways, but there is only one complete and right way. Whenever two artists are trying to do the same thing with the same materials, and do it in different ways, one of them is wrong; he may be charmingly wrong, or impressively wrong—various circumstances in his temper may make his wrong pleasanter than any person's right; it may for him, under his given limitations of knowledge or temper, be better perhaps that he should err in his own way than try for anybody else's—but for all that his way is wrong, and it is essential for all masters of schools to know what the right way is, and what right art is, and to see how simple and how single all right art has been, since the beginning of it.

因而可以推断,由于制造业只是人类用双手生产出对他有用的东西,所以从本质上说,它是与感情分离的;如果感情混入了机器中,就会毁掉机器:机器必须平稳运行,不需要感情。但美艺术不能平稳地运行,它永远需要感情来控制其运作。除非一个学生开始去感觉,除非他的所有创作都与自身感觉的方向一致,否则他就不是艺术家。但是,这个国家所有学校的学生现在所处的环境中有各种各样的诱惑,这些让他们的感觉变得迟钝。向他们发表演说的时候,我常常觉得沮丧,因为我不知道该如何大胆地告诉他们应该做什么,因为我知道他们这样做,现实中将遇到很大的困难。各个方面对他们提出各种各样的要求,他们用可以想到的一切方法赚钱,而没有一种方法是正确的。如果你画应该画的,研究应该研究的,我敢说,在很长一段时间内,大众都不会注意到你。如果你研究旁门左道,试图引起大众的注意——假设你是个聪明的学生——你很快就能得到回报;明智的探索反而不容易很快得到回报;它总会滞后一段时间;在正确的路上,早期的日子是很安静的,隔离了几乎所有帮助或称赞。而错误的路是嘈杂的——到处都吵吵闹闹,对你提出各种各样的艺术方面的要求,其实严格讲那根本就不是艺术;在现代利益的各种各样的场合中,人们想尽办法赚钱;而追求艺术只有一条路。这就是我想对你们说的主要内容,或者即使不是在对你们说(因为今晚我已从你们优秀的导师那里听说,你们正沿着完全正确的道路前进),你们也要允许我说下去,并通过你们传达给其他人。我们的艺术流派被遍布我们之中的各种教义和各种利益弄得混乱不堪。每个人都在谈论艺术,撰写和艺术有关的作品,对艺术或多或少有些兴趣;每个人都需要艺术,但艺术并不适合所有人,谈论艺术的人中没几个真正了解自己谈论的是什么;就这样,学生们被引向各种歧途,而只有一种途径能让他们取得扎实的进步,因为真正的艺术总是且永远只有一种。无论社会风俗如何变迁,无论我们可以发明出怎样的新机器,也无论我们可以供应哪些新产品,美艺术必须保持两千年前菲迪亚斯所在时代的样子;今后两千年,其全部原则和它对人类思想的巨大影响力也不会改变。请仔细思考我说的话,因为这是我最想表达的意思。对艺术家而言,完成任何既定事情的正确方法只有一种;错误的、不完善的或矫饰的方法可能有上百种,但完整且正确的方法只有一种。不论何时,当两名艺术家想用同样的材料创作出同样的艺术品,但却用了两种不同的方法,那么其中一个人的方法就是错的;可能那个人错得很有魅力,或错得使人印象深刻——他性格中的诸多特质可能让他的错误显得比他人的正确更讨人喜欢;可能对他而言,受自身知识和性格所限,用自己错误的方法要比尝试别人的方法更好——但无论如何,他的方法是错的,所以各个流派的大师都必须知道正确的方法是什么,正确的艺术是什么,还必须明了自艺术出现以来,所有正确的艺术都是多么简单、多么唯一。

But farther, not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them, without any choice, or more intense perception of one point than another, owing to our special idiosyncrasies. Thus, when Titian 1 or Tintoret 2 look at a human being, they see at a glance the whole of its nature, outside and in; all that it has of form, of colour, of passion, or of thought; saintliness, and loveliness; fleshly body, and spiritual power; grace, or strength, or softness, or whatsoever other quality, those men will see to the full, and so paint, that, when narrower people come to look at what they have done, every one may, if he chooses, find his own special pleasure in the work. The sensualist will find sensuality in Titian; the thinker will find thought; the saint, sanctity; the colourist, colour; the anatomist, form; and yet the picture will never be a popular one in the full sense, for none of these narrower people will find their special taste so alone consulted, as that the qualities which would ensure their gratification shall be sifted or separated from others; they are checked by the presence of the other qualities which ensure the gratification of other men. Thus, Titian is not soft enough for the sensualist, Correggio 3 suits him better; Titian is not defined enough for the formalist, —Leonardo 4 suits him better;Titian is not pure enough for the religionist, —Raphael suits him better; Titian is not polite enough for the man of the world, —Vandyke 5 suits him better; Titian is not forcible enough for the lovers of the picturesque, —Rembrandt 6 suits him better. So Correggio is popular with a certain set, and Vandyke with a certain set, and Rembrandt with a certain set. All are great men, but of inferior stamp, and therefore Vandyke is popular, and Rembrandt is popular, (And Murillo 7 , of all true painters the narrowest, feeblest, and most superficial, for those reasons the most popular.) but nobody cares much at heart about Titian; only there is a strange under-current of everlasting murmur about his name, which means the deep consent of all great men that he is greater than they—the consent of those who, having sat long enough at his feet, have found in that restrained harmony of his strength there are indeed depths of each balanced power more wonderful than all those separate manifestations in inferior painters: that there is a softness more exquisite than Correggio's, a purity loftier than Leonardo's, a force mightier than Rembrandt's, a sanctity more solemn even than Raffael's.

但更进一步说,不仅仅正确做事的方法只有一种,而且看待事物的方法也只有一种,即整体地看待事物,不作任何选择,也不根据我们自身的特性,对事物的某一方面比另一方面有更深刻的感触。因此,当提香或丁托列托看一个人时,一眼就能看到他的内外全部本质;他的外形、肤色、感情和想法;他的圣洁和可爱;他的血肉之躯和精神力量;他的优雅,或强壮,或温柔,或其他一切的特点,那些艺术家都能完全看到,然后画出来。当眼光狭隘些的人前来观赏他们的作品时,如果他愿意,都可以在作品中找到属于自己的乐趣。在提香的作品中,感官主义者看到的是肉欲;思想家看到的是思想;圣徒看到的是圣洁;色彩派看到的是色彩;解剖学家看到的是形态。但这幅作品永远不会在完全意义上受到大众的欢迎,因为这些狭隘的人会发现自己独特的品位得不到响应,以致于虽然他们发现了自己满意的地方,却得不到其他人的认同;而其他人觉得满意的地方又对他们形成压制。所以,在感官主义者眼中,提香的作品不够温柔,柯勒乔的作品更合口味;在形式主义者眼中,提香的作品线条不够明确,列奥纳多的作品更合口味;在宗教家眼中,提香的作品不够纯洁,拉斐尔的作品更合口味;在世俗者的眼中,提香的作.品不够文雅,凡 戴克的作品更合口味;在风景画爱好者眼中,提香的作品不够有力,伦勃朗的作品更合口味。因.此,柯勒乔在一些人中受欢迎,凡 戴克在一些人中受欢迎,伦勃朗也在一些人中受欢迎。他们都是伟大的艺术.家,但却是次等的类型,所以凡 戴克受大众欢迎,伦勃朗受大众欢迎(牟利罗是所有真正的画家中最狭隘、最无力、最肤浅的一个,而正因为这些原因也是最受欢迎的一个——作者注),而没有人从心底喜欢提香;只是有一股奇特的潜流,一直不停地低语着他的名字,诉说着所有伟大的人都深切赞同提香比他们更杰出——他们长时间驻足于提香脚下,终于发现他力量中那种有节制的和谐之下深藏的每一种平衡力量的深度都要比那些次等画家分别表现出来的更精彩奇妙:他的作品,就温柔而言,比柯勒乔的更细腻;就纯洁而言,比列奥纳多的更高尚;就力量而言,比伦勃朗的更强大;就圣洁而言,比拉斐尔的更庄严。

Do not suppose that in saying this of Titian, I am returning to the old eclectic theories of Bologna 8 ; for all those eclectic theories, observe, were based, not upon an endeavour to unite the various characters of nature (which it is possible to do), but the various narrownesses of taste, which it is impossible to do. Rubens 9 is not more vigorous than Titian, but less vigorous; but because he is so narrow-minded as to enjoy vigour only, he refuses to give the other qualities of nature, which would interfere with that vigour and with our perception of it. Again, Rembrandt is not a greater master of chiaroscuro than Titian;—he is a less master, but because he is so narrow-minded as to enjoy chiaroscuro only, he withdraws from you the splendour of hue which would interfere with this, and gives you only the shadow in which you can at once feel it. Now all these specialties have their own charm in their own way: and there are times when the particular humour of each man is refreshing to us from its very distinctness; but the effort to add any other qualities to this refreshing one instantly takes away the distinctiveness, and therefore the exact character to be enjoyed in its appeal to a particular humour in us. Our enjoyment arose from a weakness meeting a weakness, from a partiality in the painter fitting to a partiality in us, and giving us sugar when we wanted sugar, and myrrh 10 when we wanted myrrh; but sugar and myrrh are not meat: and when we want meat and bread, we must go to better men.

不要认为我这样评价提香就是回到了博洛尼亚陈旧的折衷理论;仔细看就会发现,所有那些折衷理论并非建立在将各种自然特质统一的努力之上(这是可行的),而是建立在试图统一各种狭隘品位之上,这是不可行的。鲁本斯并不比提香更有活力,反而不如提香精力充沛,但是因为他思想狭隘到只欣赏活力,所以拒绝赋予自然的其他特质,害怕这些特质会影响到活力以及我们对活力的领悟。同样,伦勃朗并非比提香更擅长明暗对比手法——他不如提香,但是因为他思想狭隘到只欣赏明暗对比法—所以将绚丽的色彩从作品中抽掉,使其不会影响到明暗对比;他只向你展现阴影,让你马上就能感觉到它的效果。所有这些特性都有自己独特的魅力:就如同有时每个人与众不同的特殊气质都会让我们觉得耳目一新,可是如果再加上其他的特质,那么它的与众不同就会被立刻抹杀,而那种能引起我们身上某种特性共鸣与兴趣的特点也会随之消失。能激发我们愉快感受的是弱点遇到弱点,是画家的偏爱与我们的偏爱相吻合,是我们想要糖的时候给我们糖,想要没药的时候给我们没药,但是糖和没药并不是肉,我们想要肉和面包的时候,就必须去找更杰出的人。

The eclectic schools endeavoured to unite these opposite partialities and weaknesses. They trained themselves under masters of exaggeration, and tried to unite opposite exaggerations. That was impossible. They did not see that the only possible eclecticism had been already accomplished;—the eclecticism of temperance, which, by the restraint of force, gains higher force; and by the self-denial of delight, gains higher delight. This you will find is ultimately the case with every true and right master; at first, while we are tyros in art, or before we have earnestly studied the man in question, we shall see little in him; or perhaps see, as we think, deficiencies; we shall fancy he is inferior to this man in that, and to the other man in the other; but as we go on studying him we shall find that he has got both that and the other; and both in a far higher sense than the man who seemed to possess those qualities in excess. Thus in Turner's 11 lifetime, when people first looked at him, those who liked rainy weather, said he was not equal to Copley Fielding; but those who looked at Turner long enough found that he could be much more wet than Copley Fielding, when he chose. The people who liked force, said that "Turner was not strong enough for them; he was effeminate; they liked De Wint,—nice strong tone;—or Cox—great, greeny, dark masses of colour—solemn feeling of the freshness and depth of nature;—they liked Cox—Turner was too hot for them." Had they looked long enough they would have found that he had far more force than De Wint, far more freshness than Cox when he chose,—only united with other elements; and that he didn't choose to be cool, if nature had appointed the weather to be hot. The people who liked Prout said "Turner had not firmness of hand—he did not know enough about architecture—he was not picturesque enough." Had they looked at his architecture long, they would have found that it contained subtle picturesquenesses, infinitely more picturesque than anything of Prout's. People who liked Callcott said that "Turner was not correct or pure enough—had no classical taste." Had they looked at Turner long enough they would have found him as severe, when he chose, as the greater Poussin;—Callcott, a mere vulgar imitator of other men's high breeding. And so throughout with all thoroughly great men, their strength is not seen at first, precisely because they unite, in due place and measure, every great quality.

主张折衷的流派试图将这些相对立的偏好和弱点统一起来。他们受教于那些擅长夸张的大师,并尝试将对立的夸张统一起来。那是不可能的。他们不明白唯一可能的折衷主义已经达成——那就是有节制的折衷主义,即通过对力量的节制,来获得更强的力量;以克制自己的快乐,来得到更高层次的快乐。你会发现所有真正的、正确的大师都是这样的。起初,当我们刚刚踏入艺术领域,或者说在我们认真研究过这里所讨论的这个人之前,我们从他身上看不到什么;或者可能看到了,也是我们所认为的各种不足;我们会认为他在这个方面不如某个人,在那个方面不如另一个人。但我们继续研究这个人就会发现,他既有这方面的特质又有那方面的特质;而且和那两个似乎是将两种特质分别发挥到极致的人比起来,这个人更高一筹。所以,在透纳有生之年,人们第一次看到他的作品.时,那些喜欢阴雨天气的人说他比不上科普利 菲尔丁;而长.期关注透纳的人就会发现,只要他愿意,他可以比科普利 菲尔丁笔下的雨天更潮湿多雨。那些喜欢力量的人说:“透纳对他.们来说不够强有力;他太柔弱了;他们喜欢德 温特——优美有力的笔调;或者考克斯——大量绿色、黑色的色块——使人对自然的清新和幽深肃然起敬;他们喜欢考克斯——透纳对他们来说太热烈了。”但是如果他们观察的时间够长,就会发.现,只要透纳愿意,他可以比德 温特更强有力,比考克斯更清新——只不过他是将其他因素也统一了进来。如果自然已经指定天气是炎热的,他就不会选择凉爽。喜欢普劳特的人说:“透纳的手法不够坚实——他对建筑的了解不足——他不够栩栩如生。”但是如果他们长时间关注透纳的建筑作品,就会发现,其中蕴含着细致入微的生动,而且比普劳特的任何一部作品都生动活泼得多。喜欢考尔科特的人说:“透纳不够正确和纯洁——毫无古典品位。”但是如果他们观察的时间够长,就会发现,如果透纳愿意,他可以像比更杰出的普桑一样严肃——考尔科特不过是其他艺术家高贵教养的平庸模仿者。因此,从古至今,所有真正杰出的人,他们的力量起初并不被发觉,恰恰是因为他们在适当的地方、用适当的方法,将每一种优秀的特质都统一起来了。

Now the question is, whether, as students, we are to study only these mightiest men, who unite all greatness, or whether we are to study the works of inferior men, who present us with the greatness which we particularly like? That question often comes before me when I see a strong idiosyncrasy in a student, and he asks me what he should study. Shall I send him to a true master, who does not present the quality in a prominent way in which that student delights, or send him to a man with whom he has direct sympathy? It is a hard question. For very curious results have sometimes been brought out, especially in late years, not only by students following their own bent, but by their being withdrawn from teaching altogether. I have just named a very great man in his own field—Prout. We all know his drawings, and love them: they have a peculiar character which no other architectural drawings ever possessed, and which no others can possess, because all Prout's subjects are being knocked down or restored. (Prout did not like restored buildings any more than I do.) There will never be any more Prout drawings. Nor could he have been what he was, or expressed with that mysteriously effective touch that peculiar delight in broken and old buildings, unless he had been withdrawn from all high art influence. You know that Prout was born of poor parents—that he was educated down in Cornwall; —and that, for many years, all the art-teaching he had was his own, or the fishermen's. Under the keels of the fishing-boats, on the sands of our southern coasts, Prout learned all he needed to learn about art. Entirely by himself, he felt his way to this particular style, and became the painter of pictures which I think we should all regret to lose. It becomes a very difficult question what that man would have been, had he been brought under some entirely wholesome artistic influence. He had immense gifts of composition. I do not know any man who had more power of invention than Prout, or who had a sublimer instinct in his treatment of things; but being entirely withdrawn from all artistical help, he blunders his way to that short-coming representation, which, by the very reason of its short-coming, has a certain charm we should all be sorry to lose. And therefore I feel embarrassed when a student comes to me, in whom I see a strong instinct of that kind: and cannot tell whether I ought to say to him, "Give up all your studies of old boats, and keep away from the sea-shore, and come up to the Royal Academy in London, and look at nothing but Titian." It is a difficult thing to make up one's mind to say that. However, I believe, on the whole, we may wisely leave such matters in the hands of Providence; that if we have the power of teaching the right to anybody, we should teach them the right; if we have the power of showing them the best thing, we should show them the best thing; there will always, I fear, be enough want of teaching, and enough bad teaching, to bring out very curious erratical results if we want them. So, if we are to teach at all, let us teach the right thing, and ever the right thing. There are many attractive qualities inconsistent with rightness; —do not let us teach them, —let us be content to waive them. There are attractive qualities in Burns, and attractive qualities in Dickens, which neither of those writers would have possessed if the one had been educated, and the other had been studying higher nature than that of cockney London; but those attractive qualities are not such as we should seek in a school of literature. If we want to teach young men a good manner of writing, we should teach it from Shakespeare, —not from Burns; from Walter Scott, —and not from Dickens. And I believe that our schools of painting are at present inefficient in their action, because they have not fixed on this high principle what are the painters to whom to point; nor boldly resolved to point to the best, if determinable. It is becoming a matter of stern necessity that they should give a simple direction to the attention of the student, and that they should say, "This is the mark you are to aim at; and you are not to go about to the print-shops, and peep in, to see how this engraver does that, and the other engraver does the other, and how a nice bit of character has been caught by a new man, and why this odd picture has caught the popular attention. You are to have nothing to do with all that; you are not to mind about popular attention just now; but here is a thing which is eternally right and good: you are to look at that, and see if you cannot do something eternally right and good too.”

现在,问题是,作为学生我们是不是只研究这些统一了所有优点的伟大人物呢?或者我们是不是要研究次等艺术家呈现给我们的那些符合我们独特偏好的作品呢?当我遇到一个有强烈偏好的学生问我他该学些什么的时候,我就会想起那个问题。我是应该让他向真正的大师学吗?而真正的大师却不会明显表现出这个学生喜欢的某种特质。或者让他追随一个有直接共鸣的人?这是个难题。因为无论是让学生遵循自己的偏好,还是让他们完全放弃学说观点,有时都有可能会出现非常奇怪的结果,近几年来尤其如此。我刚刚提到一位在自己领域里非常杰出的人——普劳特。我们都知道并喜欢他的绘画作品:它们有一种特质是其他建筑绘图不曾拥有、也不能拥有的,因为普劳特所有作品的主题都是正在拆除或重建的建筑(普劳特和我一样不喜欢重建的建筑)。以后不会再有普劳特那样的作品了。如果他没有脱离所有高等艺术的影响,就不会成为那样的普劳特,也不会用那种神秘有效的感人手法来表现他对破旧建筑的情有独钟。你们都知道普劳特出身贫寒——他在南部的康沃尔郡接受教育——多年来,他所接受的所有艺术学说都来自于自己,或者那里的渔民。在渔船的龙骨下,在南方海岸的沙滩上,普劳特学到了他需要学习的有关艺术的一切。他完全依靠自己,摸索出这种独特的风格,成为一位画家;在我看来,如果失去了他的那些作品,我们都应该觉得遗憾。如果他成长于某种完全健康的艺术影响之下,很难说他会成为什么样的画家。他有巨大的创作天赋。我所知道的人中,没有人比普劳特更富创造力,在处理作品上天分更高,但由于完全脱离了所有艺术技巧的帮助,他错误地走向了一条有缺点的表现之路,可恰恰是其艺术作品的缺点产生了某种魅力,如果失掉,我们反而会感到遗憾。所以,当有学生来找我,而我发现他有那种强大的天分时,我会觉得很尴尬:不知道自己是不是应该对他说:“放弃你对旧船的所有研究,离海边远点,来伦敦的皇家艺术学院学习,除了提香的作品,谁的作品也不要看。”要下定决心说那样的话很难。尽管如此,我认为,总体上说,我们可以明智地将这类问题交到上帝手中;如果我们有能力传授他人正确的学说,我们就应该教导他们正确的;如果我们有能力向他们展示最好的事物,我们就应该向他们展示最好的;我害怕的是,如果我们不教这些,总会有很多因教育不足和教育错误而导致的奇怪而飘忽的结果。所以,如果我们无论如何都要教,就教正确的知识,并且永远都教正确的知识。有很多吸引人的特质往往都与正确的特质相矛盾——我们不要教这些——我们要安心地放弃这些。彭斯和狄更斯都有吸引人之处,如果前者曾经受过教育,而后者研究的是比伦敦东区更高等的自然,那么他们谁也不会有那些吸引人的特质,但这些吸引人的特质不是我们应该在文学流派中寻求的。如果我们想教一个年轻人好的写作方式,我们应该引用莎士比亚,而.不是彭斯;或者引用沃尔特 司各特,而不是狄更斯。我认为我们的绘画学校现在办事效率不高,因为他们还没有确定画家们应该向谁学习什么这一最高原则;倘若确定了,也没有勇敢绝然地指出最好的道路。当务之急,他们应该为学生指出一个简单的方向,他们应该说:“你们要以此为目标;你们不要流连于版画店,不要窥视这位或那位雕刻家这样或那样的技法,不要偷学一个新人是如何抓住一个好的特征,也不要偷着研究一幅古怪的画为什么能引起大众的兴趣。你与这些无关;你现在不需要考虑大众的注意力;这里只有一件事是永远正确和有益的:你要看的就是它,并且看看自己是不是也能做永远正确和有益的事。”

But suppose you accept this principle; and resolve to look to some great man, Titian, or Turner, or whomsoever it may be, as the model of perfection in art;—then the question is, since this great man pursued his art in Venice, or in the fields of England, under totally different conditions from those possible to us now—how are you to make your study of him effective here in Manchester? How bring it down into patterns, and all that you are called upon as operatives to produce? how make it the means of your livelihood, and associate inferior branches of art with this great art? That may become a serious doubt to you. You may think there is some other way of producing clever, and pretty, and saleable patterns than going to look at Titian, or any other great man. And that brings me to the question, perhaps the most vexed question of all amongst us just now, between conventional and perfect art. You know that among architects and artists there are, and have been almost always, since art became a subject of much discussion, two parties, one maintaining that nature should be always altered and modified, and that the artist is greater than nature; they do not maintain, indeed, in words, but they maintain in idea, that the artist is greater than the Divine Maker of these things, and can improve them; while the other party say that he cannot improve nature, and that nature on the whole should improve him. That is the real meaning of the two parties, the essence of them; the practical result of their several theories being that the Idealists are always producing more or less formal conditions of art, and the Realists striving to produce in all their art either some image of nature, or record of nature; these, observe, being quite different things, the image being a resemblance, and the record, something which will give information about nature, but not necessarily imitate it. (The portion of the lecture here omitted was a recapitulation of that part of the previous one which opposed conventional art to natural art.)

但是假设你们接受了这个原则:下定决心向伟人们看齐,将提香、透纳或是其他某个人当作艺术领域内的完美模范——那么问题是,这位伟人要么在威尼斯追求艺术,要么在英格兰的荒原里,与我们现在所处的环境完全不同——你们怎样才能在曼彻斯特这里有效地研究他们呢?你怎样将真正的艺术运用到各种图案中?怎样才能把艺术当成谋生的手段,而同时又能将低等艺术分支与伟大的艺术联系起来呢?这些可能会深深困扰着你们。你们可能会想除了去学习提香或其他伟大艺术家外,应该还有其他方法能够创作出精巧、漂亮而且适于销售的图案。这让我想起了传统艺术与完美艺术之间存在的一个问题,这可能是现在困扰着我们所有人的问题中最难的一个。你们都知道,在建筑家和艺术家的圈子里,从艺术成为一门广受争议的学科以来,几乎一直都存在两个派别,其中一派主张应该不断改造自然,艺术家要比自然更伟大;实际上,他们没有用语言表达出来,但在思想上,他们坚持认为艺术家要比神圣的造物主更伟大,而且可以改造自然万物;而另一派则认为人类无法改造自然,而基本上应该是大自然改造人类。这是两个派别的真正意图,也是他们的本质;他们若干理论的现实结果是理想主义者或多或少总是创作形式上的艺术环境,而现实主义者力争在他们所有的艺术作品中要么体现某种自然的影像,要么记录自然;注意,影像和记录是非常不同的两种事物,前者是一种自然的类同之物,而后者则是可以传达自然信息的事物,不一定要模仿自然。(这里省略掉了一部分内容,是摘要重述前面一部分有关传统艺术与自然艺术的对比。——作者注)

You may separate these two groups of artists more distinctly in your mind as those who seek for the pleasure of art, in the relations of its colours and lines, without caring to convey any truth with it; and those whoseek for the truth first, and then go down from the truth to the pleasure of colour and line. Marking those two bodies distinctly as separate, and thinking over them, you may come to some rather notable conclusions respecting the mental dispositions which are involved in each mode of study. You will find that large masses of the art of the world fall definitely under one or the other of these heads. Observe, pleasure first and truth afterwards, (or not at all,) as with the Arabians and Indians; or, truth first and pleasure afterwards, as with Angelico 12 and all other great European painters. You will find that the art whose end is pleasure only is pre-eminently the gift of cruel and savage nations, cruel in temper, savage in habits and conception; but that the art which is especially dedicated to natural fact always indicates a peculiar gentleness and tenderness of mind, and that all great and successful work of that kind will assuredly be the production of thoughtful, sensitive, earnest, kind men, large in their views of life, and full of various intellectual power. And farther, when you examine the men in whom the gifts of art are variously mingled, or universally mingled, you will discern that the ornamental, or pleasurable power, though it may be possessed by good men, is not in itself an indication of their goodness, but is rather, unless balanced by other faculties, indicative of violence of temper, inclining to cruelty and to irreligion. On the other hand, so sure as you find any man endowed with a keen and separate faculty of representing natural fact, so surely you will find that man gentle and upright, full of nobleness and breadth of thought. I will give you two instances, the first peculiarly English, and another peculiarly interesting because it occurs among a nation not generally very kind or gentle.

在头脑中,你也许会更清楚地区分这两派艺术家,你们可以认为其中一派是在各种色彩和线条的关系中寻求艺术的快乐,并不关心在其中表达任何真理;而另一派首先寻求的是真理,然后沿着真理寻求色彩和线条带来的快乐。清楚地区分两者之后,再仔细思考,在每种研究模式所涉及的心理倾向上,你们会得出一些很有意义的结论。你们会发现艺术世界的芸芸众生都可以明显地归入这类人或那类人。注意,追求快乐第一、真理第二(或者根本没有)的有阿拉伯人和印度人;追求真理第一、快乐第二的有安吉利科和其他所有杰出的欧洲画家。你们会发现,在艺术中以快乐为终极目标的明显是那些残忍、野蛮的民族的天性,他们性情残忍,观念和习俗野蛮不化;而用于表现自然事实的艺术作品往往显示出人类思想特别温和柔顺的一面,此类艺术中所有优秀和成功的作品肯定是有思想、感觉敏锐、真诚、善良的艺术家之作,他们以宽广的视角看待生命,充满智慧的力量。当你再进一步考察那些综合了多种或者完全融合了艺术才能的人,你们会发现尽管优秀的艺术家可能会有使创作成为装饰或带来快乐的力量,但这种力量本身不是他们的优点的体现,相反,如果没有其他才能来平衡,这种力量预示着暴躁的性情、残忍和反宗教的倾向。另一方面,如果你们肯定某一个人拥有可以表现自然事实的敏锐独特的能力,你们就肯定会发现这个人温和正直,充满了高贵而广博的思想。我给你们举两个例子,第一个是英国特有的,另一个非常有趣,因为它发生在一个通常不是很友好和善的国家。

I am inclined to think that, considering all the disadvantages of circumstances and education under which his genius was developed, there was perhaps hardly ever born a man with a more intense and innate gift of insight into nature than our own Sir Joshua Reynolds. Considered as a painter of individuality in the human form and mind, I think him, even as it is, the prince of portrait painters. Titian paints nobler pictures, and Vandyke had nobler subjects, but neither of them entered so subtly as Sir Joshua did into the minor varieties of human heart and temper; and when you consider that, with a frightful conventionality of social habitude all around him, he yet conceived the simplest types of all feminine and childish loveliness;—that in a northern climate, and with grey, and white, and black, as the principal colours around him, he yet became a colourist who can be crushed by none, even of the Venetians;—and that with Dutch painting and Dresden 13 china for the prevailing types of art in the saloons of his day, he threw himself at once at the feet of the great masters of Italy, and arose from their feet to share their throne—I know not that in the whole history of art you can produce another instance of so strong, so unaided, so unerring an instinct for all that was true, pure, and noble.

想到他在种种不利的环境和教育影响下,艺术才能还.能得以发展,我想恐怕我们的约书亚 雷诺兹爵士所拥有的那种对自然与生俱来的、强烈的洞察力,是没有人比得上的。作为一位在人体形态和思想刻画方面有独特风格的画家,我认为他是肖像画家中的王子,事实上他就是。提.香的画更高贵,凡 戴克的主题更高贵,但他们在刻画人类心灵和性情的细微差别方面都不如约书亚爵士精细;当你想到他周围充斥着沉闷可怕的社会陈规陋习,却依然能够构思出最简单的类型来表现女性和孩子的所有可爱之处——生活在北方的气候下,周围是灰色、白色和黑色为主的世界,却依然能够成为不可匹敌的色彩派画家,即使是威尼斯画家也比不上他——他生活的时代,荷兰画和德累斯顿瓷器是沙龙中的主流艺术类型,可是他却立刻拜倒在意大利伟大艺术家们的脚下,循着他们的足迹,分享他们的荣耀—我不知道在整个艺术史中,你们能否找到一个人像他这样,对所有真实的、纯洁的、高贵的事物拥有如此强大、如此独立、如此正确的天赋。

Now, do you recollect the evidence respecting the character of this man,—the two points of bright peculiar evidence given by the sayings of the two greatest literary men of his day, Johnson and Goldsmith? Johnson, who, as you know, was always Reynolds' attached friend, had but one complaint to make against him, that he hated nobody:—"Reynolds," he said, "you hate no one living; I like a good hater!" Still more significant is the little touch in Goldsmith's "Retaliation." You recollect how in that poem he describes the various persons who met at one of their dinners at St. James's Coffee-house, each person being described under the name of some appropriate dish. You will often hear the concluding lines about Reynolds Quoted—

现在,你们是否能回忆起有关这个人性格的证据?与他同时代的两位伟大文学家约翰逊和戈尔德斯密斯的话就提供了两点鲜明而独特的证据。你们都知道,约翰逊一直是雷诺兹很亲近的朋友,他对雷诺兹只有一点抱怨,那就是他不恨任何人——“雷诺兹,”约翰逊说,“你不恨任何生物;我喜欢爱恨分明的人!”更能体现雷诺兹性格的是戈尔德斯密斯在《报复》中描写的一小段。你们回忆一下,那首诗中,他描写圣詹姆斯咖啡屋的一次晚宴上出席的各种人物时,如何给每个人都对应上一个适当的菜名。你们经常听人提起总结雷诺兹的那几行诗——

"He shifted his trumpet," &c.;—

“他换了喇叭”……

less often, or at least less attentively, the preceding ones, far more important—

前面有几句不常被提及,或者至少不常被有意提及,但却更重要——

"Still born to improve us in every part—

“生来就是要改造我们的每个方面——

His pencil our faces, his manners our heart;”

他用铅笔勾勒我们的脸庞,他用行动感召我们的心灵;"

and never, the most characteristic touch of all, near the beginning:—

最有特色的几句话在开头,却从不曾被提及——

"Our dean shall be venison, just fresh from the plains;

“我们的院长是刚刚从平原来的新鲜野味;

Our Burke shall be tongue, with a garnish of brains;

我们的布克是智慧修饰的舌头。

To make out the dinner, full certain I am,

要做出一桌晚宴,我完全肯定,

That Rich is anchovy, and Reynolds is lamb.”

里奇是条凤尾鱼,而雷诺兹是头羔羊。”

The other painter whom I would give you as an instance of this gentleness is a man of another nation, on the whole I suppose one of the most cruel civilized nations in the world,—the Spaniards. They produced but one great painter, only one; but he among the very greatest of painters, Velasquez 14 . You would not suppose, from looking at Velasquez' portraits generally, that he was an especially kind or good man; you perceive a peculiar sternness about them; for they were as true as steel, and the persons whom he had to paint being not generally kind or good people, they were stern in expression, and Velasquez gave the sternness; but he had precisely the same intense perception of truth, the same marvellous instinct for the rendering of all natural soul and all natural form that our Reynolds had. Let me, then, read you his character as it is given by Mr. Stirling, of Kier:—

我要向你们提到的另一位气质温和的画家来自另一个国家。基本上我认为这是世界上最残忍的文明国家之一——西班牙。西班牙人中只出现了一位伟大的画家,只有这一位,但这一位也是顶尖的伟大画家,他就是委拉斯开兹。一般来说,从他的肖像画作品中,你想象不出他是个特别友好或善良的人;你感受到的是一种特别的严肃;因为这些作品像钢铁一样真实,他所刻画的人物一般都不是良善之辈,他们表情严肃,委拉斯开兹画出了这种严肃感。但是,他完全和我们的雷诺兹一样,对真理,有强烈的感知;在表现所有自然的精神和形式方面,拥有奇妙的.天分。接下来,请允许我给你们读一段斯特灵 凯尔先生对委拉斯开兹性格的描述:

"Certain charges, of what nature we are not informed, brought against him after his death, made it necessary for his executor, Fuensalida, to refute them at a private audience granted to him by the king for that purpose. After listening to the defence of his friend, Philip immediately made answer: 'I can believe all you say of the excellent disposition of Diego Velasquez.' Having lived for half his life in courts, he was yet capable both of gratitude and generosity, and in the misfortunes, he could remember the early kindness of Olivares. The friend of the exile of Loeches 15 , it is just to believe that he was also the friend of the all-powerful favourite at Buenretiro 16 . No mean jealousy ever influenced his conduct to his brother artists; he could afford not only to acknowledge the merits, but to forgive the malice, of his rivals. His character was of that rare and happy kind, in which high intellectual power is combined with indomitable strength of will, and a winning sweetness of temper, and which seldom fails to raise the possessor above his fellow-men, making his life a

“他去世以后,出现了一些对他的指责,这些指责的实质我们不得而知。他的遗嘱执行人范萨里达为此采取了必要的行动,在国王的批准下,弗恩萨利召开了一个私人听证会,对这些指责者进行了反驳。听完他为朋友的辩护之后,菲利普马上作出回应:‘我相信你说的一切有关迭.戈 委拉斯开兹的优良性情。’即使半辈子都生活在法庭中,他依然懂得感激和慷慨;在遭遇不幸之时,他依然记得奥里维拉斯早期的善良。他既是流放之地洛耶奇斯的朋友,可以相信,他也是神圣华丽之境丽池的朋友。对待兄弟艺术家,他从没有因恶意忌妒而影响行为;对待竞争对手,他不仅承认对方的优点,而且宽恕对方的恶意攻击。他的性格属于那种少有的、快乐的善良,结合了高度的智慧力量、不屈不挠的坚强意志力以及讨人喜欢的可爱性情。拥有这种性格的人往往高人一等,他的人生是:

'laurelled victory, and smooth success

‘胜利的桂冠,平坦的成功之路

Be strewed before his feet'."

铺撒在他的脚下。’”

I am sometimes accused of trying to make art too moral; yet, observe, I do not say in the least that in order to be a good painter you must be a good man; but I do say that in order to be a good natural painter there must be strong elements of good in the mind, however warped by other parts of the character. There are hundreds of other gifts of painting which are not at all involved with moral conditions, but this one, the perception of nature, is never given but under certain moral conditions. Therefore, now you have it in your choice; here are your two paths for you: it is required of you to produce conventional ornament, and you may approach the task as the Hindoo does, and as the Arab did, without nature at all, with the chance of approximating your disposition somewhat to that of the Hindoos and Arabs; or as Sir Joshua and Velasquez did, with, not the chance, but the certainty, of approximating your disposition, according to the sincerity of your effort—to the disposition of those great and good men.

有时候有人指责我总是试图将艺术太过道德化,可是,请注意,我根本没有说要成为一个杰出的画家,你必须做一个善良的人;而我说的是要成为杰出的自然画家,你的思想中必须有强大的善良成分,无论性格中是否有扭曲的其他部分。有成百种绘画天赋是与道德水平完全无关的,但是,这一种,对自然的感悟能力,只有达到一定的道德境界才能拥有。因此,现在你们可以自己选择,你们面前有两条路:一条要求你创作传统的装饰艺术品,你可以向当今的印度人或过去的阿拉伯人学习——根本不需要自然,你们的性情说不定有机会达到近似印度人或阿拉伯人的地步;或者另一条路,就像约书亚爵士和委拉斯开兹那样,不靠机遇,而是一定能通过自己真诚地努力,使性情接近那些伟大和杰出的艺术家。

And do you suppose you will lose anything by approaching your conventional art from this higher side? Not so. I called, with deliberate measurement of my expression, long ago, the decoration of the Alhambra 17 "detestable," not merely because indicative of base conditions of moral being, but because merely as decorative work, however captivating in some respects, it is wholly wanting in the real, deep, and intense qualities of ornamental art. Noble conventional decoration belongs only to three periods. First, there is the conventional decoration of the Greeks, used in subordination to their sculpture. There are then the noble conventional decoration of the early Gothic schools, and the noble conventional arabesque of the great Italian schools. All these were reached from above, all reached by stooping from a knowledge of the human form. Depend upon it you will find, as you look more and more into the matter, that good subordinate ornament has ever been rooted in a higher knowledge; and if you are again to produce anything that is noble, you must have the higher knowledge first, and descend to all lower service; condescend as much as you like, —condescension never does any man any harm, —but get your noble standing first. So, then, without any scruple, whatever branch of art you may be inclined as a student here to follow, —whatever you are to make your bread by, I say, so far as you have time and power, make yourself first a noble and accomplished artist; understand at least what noble and accomplished art is, and then you will be able to apply your knowledge to all service whatsoever.

你们是不是认为,从较高的层面来接近你们的传统艺术会让你们失去些什么?不会的。很久以前,经过一番字斟句酌,我指出阿尔罕布拉宫的装饰“令人厌恶”,不仅仅是因为这些装饰表现了低级的道德水平,而是因为仅仅作为装饰品,它们虽然在某些方面有些魅力,但却完全缺乏装饰艺术真实、深沉、浓重的特质。高贵的传统装饰作品仅在三个时期出现过。首先是希腊人的传统装饰,被用作雕刻作品的附属物。然后是早期哥特流派的高贵传统装饰和伟大的意大利流派的高贵传统蔓藤花纹。所有这些都是自上而下形成的,都是由对人体形态的知识向下延伸而达到的。基于这点,随着你们观察得越来越多,你们会发现优秀的附属装饰一直都植根于更高层次的知识。那么,如果你想要再次创作出高尚的作品,你就必须先有较高层次的知识,然后可以俯身到所有较低层次的工作;到那时,你想降到多低就降到多低—屈尊从来不会给任何人造成任何伤害—但你首先要在高贵之地立足。所以,不要有任何顾忌,作为这里的学生,无论你倾向于追随哪一种艺术流派—无论你打算以何为生,我想说,只要你还有时间和力量,先让自己成为高贵和有所成就的艺术家;至少也要明白什么是高贵和有所成就的艺术,然后你就能将自己的知识运用到任何一种创作中了。

I am now going to ask your permission to name the masters whom I think it would be well if we could agree, in our Schools of Art in England, to consider our leaders. The first and chief I will not myself presume to name; he shall be distinguished for you by the authority of those two great painters of whom we have just been speaking—Reynolds and Velasquez. You may remember that in your Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition the most impressive things were the works of those two men—nothing told upon the eye so much; no other pictures retained it with such a persistent power. Now, I have the testimony, first of Reynolds to Velasquez, and then of Velasquez to the man whom I want you to take as the master of all your English schools. The testimony of Reynolds to Velasquez is very striking. I take it from some fragments which have just been published by Mr. William Cotton—precious fragments—of Reynolds' diaries, which I chanced upon luckily as I was coming down here: for I was going to take Velasquez' testimony alone, and then fell upon this testimony of Reynolds to Velasquez, written most fortunately in Reynolds' own hand—you may see the manuscript. "What we are all," said Reynolds, "attempting to do with great labour, Velasquez does at once." Just think what is implied when a man of the enormous power and facility that Reynolds had, says he was "trying to do with great labour" what Velasquez "did at once."

现在我想请你们允许我列出几位大师,如果我们能够达成共识,这将会很好,这几位是英国艺术流派中可以称为领袖的人物。第一位也是最重要的一位,我不想自作主张说出是谁,应该由我们刚刚提到的两位伟大画家——雷诺兹和委拉斯开兹的权威来挑选。你们应该还记得,在曼彻斯特艺术宝藏展览会上,给人印象最深刻的是这两位画家的作品——从没有作品如此引人注目;从没有哪幅画能保持它如此长久的影响力。现在,我拿出证词,首先是雷诺兹对委拉斯开兹的证言,然后是委拉斯开兹对另一个人的证言,而这个人是我希望你们把他当作统领所有英国流派的大师。雷诺兹对委拉斯开兹的证言非常震撼。我从威.廉 科顿先生刚刚出版的几篇雷诺兹日记片断中得到了这段话,这真是宝贵的片断,而幸运的是我在来这里的路上偶然间看到了:因为原本我打算引用的只有委拉斯开兹的证言,然后却碰到了这段雷诺兹对委拉斯开兹的证言,非常幸运的是,这是雷诺兹亲笔写的——你们可以看一下原稿。雷诺兹说:“我们所有人竭尽全力试图做到的事,委拉斯开兹一下子就做到了。”大家思考一下,像雷诺兹这样有巨大能力和才能的人,说自己“竭尽全力试图要做到”委拉斯开兹“一下子就能做到”的事,这意味着什么?

Having thus Reynolds' testimony to Velasquez, I will take Velasquez' testimony to somebody else. You know that Velasquez was sent by Philip of Spain to Italy, to buy pictures for him. He went all over Italy, saw the living artists there, and all their best pictures when freshly painted, so that he had every opportunity of judging; and never was a man so capable of judging. He went to Rome and ordered various works of living artists; and while there, he was one day asked by Salvator Rosa what he thought of Raphael. His reply, and the ensuing conversation, are thus reported by Boschini, in curious Italian verse, which, thus translated by Dr. Donaldson, is quoted in Mr. Stirling's Life of Velasquez:—

看完这份雷诺兹对委拉斯开兹的证言后,我再引用一份委拉斯开兹对另一个人的证言。你们都知道,委拉斯开兹曾受西班牙的菲利普之托,前往意大利为其购买画作。他遍访意大利,见到了当地生活的艺术家和他们新近创作的最优秀的作品。因此,他有种种机会可以鉴别那些画作,并且他也是最能胜任这项鉴别工作的。他到罗马订购了当时艺术家的各式作品;在罗马逗留期间,有一天萨尔.瓦多 罗萨问他如何看待拉斐尔。他的答复以及他们后面的谈话内容由博希尼记录在一首古怪的意大利诗里,斯特灵先生在《委拉斯开兹的一生》中引用了唐纳德博士翻译的这首诗:

"The master" [Velasquez] "stiffly bowed his figure tall

“大师[委拉斯开兹]不太自然地弯了弯高大的身体

And said, 'For Rafael, to speak the truth—

说道:‘对于拉斐尔,说实话——

I always was plain-spoken from my youth—

我从年轻的时候起说话就一直很直接——

I cannot say I like his works at all.'

我根本不喜欢他的作品。’

“'Well,' said the other" [Salvator]," ‘if you can run down

‘那么,’另一个人[萨尔瓦多]说,‘如果你看不上

So great a man, I really cannot see

如此伟大的一位艺术家,我真不知道

What you can find to like in Italy;

你能在意大利找到什么喜欢的作品;

To him we all agree to give the crown.'"

我们可都赞同授予他艺术之冠。’

"Diego answered thus: 'I saw in Venice

迭戈这样回答:‘我在威尼斯见到了

The true test of the good and beautiful;

能真正考验善与美的作品;

First in my judgement, ever stands that school,

在我看来,这是意大利流派有史以来的第一次,

And Titian first of all Italian men is.'"

而提香才是意大利艺术家中的第一人。’”

"Tizian ze quel die porta la bandiera."

"Tizian ze quel die porta la bandiera"(西班牙语:提香是意大利艺术家的领袖)

Learn that line by heart and act, at all events for some time to come, upon Velasquez' opinion in that matter. Titian is much the safest master for you. Raphael's power, such as it was, and great as it was, depended wholly upon transcendental characters in his mind; it is "Raphaelesque," properly so called; but Titian's power is simply the power of doing right. Whatever came before Titian, he did wholly as it ought to be done. Do not suppose that now in recommending Titian to you so strongly, and speaking of nobody else to-night, I am retreating in anywise from what some of you may perhaps recollect in my works, the enthusiasm with which I have always spoken of another Venetian painter. There are three Venetians who are never separated in my mind—Titian, Veronese, and Tintoret. They all have their own unequalled gifts, and Tintoret especially has imagination and depth of soul which I think renders him indisputably the greatest man; but, equally indisputably, Titian is the greatest painter; and therefore the greatest painter who ever lived. You may be led wrong by Tintoret (See Appendix I—"Right and Wrong.") in many respects, wrong by Raphael in more; all that you learn from Titian will be right. Then, with Titian, take Leonardo, Rembrandt, and Albert Duerer. I name those three masters for this reason: Leonardo has powers of subtle drawing which are peculiarly applicable in many ways to the drawing of fine ornament, and are very useful for all students. Rembrandt and Duerer are the only men whose actual work of hand you can have to look at; you can have Rembrandt's etchings, or Duerer's engravings actually hung in your schools; and it is a main point for the student to see the real thing, and avoid judging of masters at second-hand. As, however, in obeying this principle, you cannot often have opportunities of studying Venetian painting, it is desirable that you should have a useful standard of colour, and I think it is possible for you to obtain this. I cannot, indeed, without entering upon ground which might involve the hurting the feelings of living artists, state exactly what I believe to be the relative position of various painters in England at present with respect to power of colour. But I may say this, that in the peculiar gifts of colour which will be useful to you as students, there are only one or two of the pre-Raphaelites, and William Hunt, of the old Water Colour Society, who would be safe guides for you; and as quite a safe guide, there is nobody but William Hunt, because the pre-Raphaelites are all more or less affected by enthusiasm and by various morbid conditions of intellect and temper; but old William Hunt—I am sorry to say "old," but I say it in a loving way, for every year that has added to his life has added also to his skill—William Hunt is as right as the Venetians, as far as he goes, and what is more, nearly as inimitable as they. And I think if we manage to put in the principal schools of England a little bit of Hunt's work, and make that somewhat of a standard of colour, that we can apply his principles of colouring to subjects of all kinds. Until you have had a work of his long near you; nay, unless you have been labouring at it, and trying to copy it, you do not know the thoroughly grand qualities that are concentrated in it. Simplicity, and intensity, both of the highest character; —simplicity of aim, and intensity of power and success, are involved in that man's unpretending labour.

用心记住上面的这句话,无论以后怎样,在这件事上,都要按照委拉斯开兹的意见行动。提香是你们最可靠的大师。像拉斐尔那样的力量,虽然伟大,但却完全依赖于他思想中先验主义的特质;更确切地说,这就是“拉斐尔风格的”;但提香的力量却只是正确创作的力量。无论摆在他面前的是什么,提香完全按照应该用的方法进行创作。虽然我现在一直向你们强烈推荐提香,而整晚未提及其他艺术家,但请不要认为我放弃了一直以来自己所热衷谈论的另一位威尼斯画家,你们中有些人可能还记得我在以前的作品中提到过。在我的脑海里有三位威尼斯画家永远是连在一起、不可分开的——提香、韦罗内塞和丁多雷。他们都有自己无与伦比的天赋。丁多雷的想象力和思想深度尤其出色,我认为正因为如此,他能毫无争议地成为最伟大的艺术家;同样毫无争议的是,提香是最伟大的画家,是有史以来最伟大的画家。在很多方面,你们可能会受到丁多雷的误导(参见附录一“正确的和错误的”——作者注),拉斐尔的误导更多;而你从提香那里学到的都是对的。除了提香之外,还有伦纳德、伦勃朗和阿尔.伯特 杜勒。我之所以提到这三位大师是因为:伦纳德精细的画工,在各种方法中尤其适合精美装饰画的创作,对所有的学生都非常有用。伦勃朗和杜勒的手工艺术品是这类作品中你们唯一有必要看的;你们可以把伦勃朗的蚀刻画或杜勒的版画实实在在地挂在学校里;对学生来说,主要一点是亲眼看到真实的作品,要避免道听途说地评价这些艺术大师。即使你们遵循了这一原则,但也不是常常有机会学习威尼斯艺术家的作品,所以你们有必要掌握一种有用的色彩标准;我认为你们还是可能做到这一点的。我不想明确说出自己心目中当今英格兰各位画家在色彩运用方面的能力谁高谁低,这样可能会伤害到现在一些在世的艺术家的感情。但我可以说的是,对于你们学生来说,在色彩运用方面有独特天赋并且能为你们提供可靠引导的,.只有一两位拉斐尔前派画家和过去水彩画协会的威廉 亨特;作为尤其可靠的引导者,没有人比他更合适,因为拉斐尔前派艺术家或多或少会受激情和各种智力、性情方面.的病态情绪影响;但老威廉 亨特—抱歉用了“老”这个字,但我是出于爱戴才这样说的,因为随着年龄的增.加,他的技艺也在不断提高——威廉 亨特所走的路和威尼斯艺术家一样正确,而且像他们一样几乎无法被模仿。我认为,如果我们可以在英格兰的主要艺术学院中放一些亨特的作品,并在一定程度上以他对色彩的运用为标准,那么我们就能将他的色彩原则应用到各种主题中。除非你能让他的一幅作品长久地伴你左右;不但如此,除非你一直努力研究他的作品,尝试模仿他的作品,否则你不会了解凝结在其中的伟大特质。朴素与强烈两种最高的品质——朴素的是目的,强烈的是作品透出的力量和成就,共存于这位大师自然质朴的创作之中。

Finally, you cannot believe that I would omit my own favourite, Turner. I fear from the very number of his works left to the nation, that there is a disposition now rising to look upon his vast bequest with some contempt. I beg of you, if in nothing else, to believe me in this, that you cannot further the art of England in any way more distinctly than by giving attention to every fragment that has been left by that man. The time will come when his full power and right place will be acknowledged; that time will not be for many a day yet: nevertheless, be assured—as far as you are inclined to give the least faith to anything I may say to you, be assured—that you can act for the good of art in England in no better way than by using whatever influence any of you have in any direction to urge the reverent study and yet more reverent preservation of the works of Turner. I do not say "the exhibition" of his works, for we are not altogether ripe for it: they are still too far above us; uniting, as I was telling you, too many qualities for us yet to feel fully their range and their influence; —but let us only try to keep them safe from harm, and show thoroughly and conveniently what we show of them at all, and day by day their greatness will dawn upon us more and more, and be the root of a school of art in England, which I do not doubt may be as bright, as just, and as refined as even that of Venice herself. The dominion of the sea seems to have been associated, in past time, with dominion in the arts also: Athens had them together; Venice had them together; but by so much as our authority over the ocean is wider than theirs over the Aegean or Adriatic, let us strive to make our art more widely beneficent than theirs, though it cannot be more exalted; so working out the fulfilment, in their wakening as well as their warning sense, of those great words of the aged Tintoret:

最后,你们可别认为我会忘了自己最喜欢的透纳。令我担心的是,因为他留给这个民族的作品数量的关系,现在国内出现了轻视这笔巨大遗产的情绪。我恳请你们,即使不相信我说的其他话,也一定要相信这句话,那就是:重视这位大师留下的每一件作品,哪怕是一个碎片也别放过,没有比这更能够显著推动英格兰艺术发展的了。终有一天,人们会完全认识到他的力量和应有的地位;这一天不会太遥远了。然而,要相信——只要你们对我说的话抱有一点最微小的信心——就要相信你们可以为英格兰艺术作贡献的最好方法是:用自己在各个方面的一切影响力促进人们虔诚地向透纳学习以及更好地保护他的作品。我不是说为他的作品“办展览”,因为总体来说我们还没准备好:这些作品仍然远远超出我们的欣赏水平;正如我告诉你们的,这些作品中统一了太多特质,我们还不能完全感受它们的范围和影响力——但我们只要努力让它们远离伤害,尽可能充分和便捷地展示它们,那么日复一日,它们的伟大特质会潜移默化地带给我们越来越多的启发,成为英格兰艺术学院的根基。我深信,甚至会像威尼斯那样灿烂、纯正、优雅。过去,领海范围与艺术范围似乎也是联系在一起的:雅典人把两者放在一起;威尼斯人把两者放在一起;而我们所管海洋的权威如此之大,我们所管辖的海洋远远比他们的爱琴海和亚得里亚海宽广,所以与他们相比,我们应该努力让自己的艺术惠及面更广,虽然不可能比他们的更高贵。因此,我们要充分践行丁多雷暮年时的那句话,既是警示,也是激励:

"SEMPRE SI FA IL MARE MAGGIORE."

"SEMPRE SI FA IL MARE MAGGIORE"(意大利语:永远比海洋更宽广)。

(1) 提香(1488-1576),意大利文艺复兴时期威尼斯画家,擅长肖像画、宗教和神话题材画,作品有《乌尔宾诺的维纳斯》、《圣母升天》等。

(2) 丁托列托(1518-1594),意大利文艺复兴后期威尼斯画派画家,作品有《圣马克拯救奴隶》、《最后审判》及天顶画《铜蛇的勃起》等。

(3) 柯 勒 乔(1494-1534),意大利文艺复兴时期重要画家,创作了大量的油画和天顶画,多以宗教和神话为题材,著名作品有《耶稣诞生》、天顶画《圣母升天》。

(4) 列奥纳多. 达 .芬奇(1452-1519),意大利文艺复兴时期建筑师、艺术家,与米开朗琪罗和拉斐尔并称“文艺复兴三杰”。

(5) 凡 戴克 (1599-1641),佛兰德斯作家,英王查理一世宫廷画师,作品多以宗教、神话为题材,尤以贵族肖像画著称。

(6) 伦 勃 朗(1606-1669),荷兰画家,擅长运用明暗对比,讲究构图的完美,尤善于表现人物的神情和性格特征,作品有群像油画《夜巡》、蚀版画《浪子回家》、素描《老人坐像》等。

(7) 牟 利 罗(1618-1682),西班牙巴罗克画家,风格柔和细腻,作品有宗教画《圣母无原罪始胎》、《圣莱安德罗》及风俗画《童丐》等。

(8) 博洛尼亚(1529-1608),生于法国的佛兰德斯雕塑家,属风格主义艺术流派,主要作品有《飞神墨丘利》、《萨宾纳的洗劫》等。

(9) 鲁 本 斯(1557-1640),佛兰德斯画家,巴罗克艺术代表人物,在欧洲艺术史上有具大影响,作品有《基督下十字架》、《维纳斯和阿多尼斯》、《农民的舞蹈》等。

(10) 没药是从没药树上收集的胶状物质,产于阿拉伯、索马里、埃塞俄比亚等地,有药用和防腐的功效。

(11) 透纳(1775—1851),英国风景画家,擅长水彩画,融合油画与水彩技法,追求光与色的效果,主要作品有《运输船的遇难》、《迪埃香港》、《雨、薰汽和速度》等。

(12) 安吉利科(1395—1455),意大利文艺复兴早期的僧侣画家。

(13) 德累斯顿,德国萨克森州(Saxony)首府。

(14) 委拉斯开兹(1599—1660),17世纪西班牙画家,对19世纪欧洲现实主义画派有较大影响。

(15) 洛耶奇斯,西班牙地名,曾是流放罪犯的地方这里是为了与委拉斯开兹的法官身份相联系。

(16) 委拉斯开兹曾负责西班牙丽池(Buenretiro)皇宫的部分装潢。

(17) 阿尔罕布拉宫,中古西班牙摩尔人诸王的豪华宫殿。 NHgdGEJw29sCFMmRK+gPF84n+5D3/V2/0x3LD5kwsZi2/DtciRfUx2ZeIC//3sfs

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