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Bilingual Stories about Turner
[ 2009-04-24 09:22 ]

 

Turner continue to explore the theme of the classical Carthaginian Empire in other works, 透纳在其他作品中继续钻研经典的迦太基帝国的题材。

but in contrast to the themes of Hannibal, he turned his attentions to the master of the idealized classical landscape, Claude Lorrain. 与汉尼拔的题材不同的是,透纳将他的注意力集中到了唯美的经典风景画大师克劳德•洛兰上。

The most famous of all Turner's paintings influenced by Claude, is probably this one, Dido Building Carthage, painted around 1815, 在透纳的名作中受克劳德影响最大的也许就是这幅画,名叫《狄多建设迦太基》,于1815年完成。

and full of wonderful topographical detail and great classical buildings, an indication that Turner's imagination is really burgeoning.

画面生动地描绘出了当时的山水地貌和古典建筑,表现了透纳的想象力的确在发展。

It’s a scene from an epic poem by a Roman poet Vergil, about the building of Carthage by queen Dido. 这幅画的题材来源于罗马诗人维吉尔的史诗,描述的是女王狄多建设迦太基的故事。

People looking at this painting in 1815, would have been well versed in Vergil's poetry, and Turner's wearing his own education on his sleeve here. 1815年的英国人熟知维吉尔的诗,而透纳则对这段历史有着独到的见解。

The sunlight at the heart of the painting eradiate everything, a dazzling example of Turner's obsession with the power of nature. 画面中央的太阳光芒四射,威力无穷,将万物笼罩其中,体现了透纳对自然力量的迷恋。

So even if this man-made empire is beginning, natural forces dominate over all. 透纳的想法是,即使这个人类组建的帝国开始兴盛,自然力量仍然主导一切。

But I think there's also a hint here of what I might call the classical sublime. 但我认为这里也有些所谓经典崇高理论的影子。

In other words, Turner's awe when looking at human achievements and when looking at history itself. 换句话说,人类取得的成果和历史本身让透纳为之敬畏。

At least partly inspired by Claude's classical paintings, Turner went to Italy for the first time in 1819. 至少部分由于受克劳德古典绘画的影响,透纳于1819年前往意大利。

Like so many artists before him, he went in search of history, and the art and architecture of Italian masters. 与他之前的许多艺术家一样,透纳去意大利是为了寻找历史,寻找意大利大师们的艺术和建筑。

He traveled to Florence, Rome 他先后去了佛罗伦萨、罗马 and then to Venice where he was captivated by the optical dazzle of the city's canal and the lagoons. 然后又到威尼斯,被那里的运河和环礁湖的绚丽景色所打动。

For someone who used to grey cold and foggy London, it was a shock to the system, and it was to give him a new momentum in his painting. 对于一个习惯了灰蒙蒙的伦敦大雾的人来说,这些景色从骨子里动摇了他的审美观,赐予了他绘画的新动力。

In 1832, Turner made a second trip to Venice that filled his imagination and set the tone for the rest of the decade. 1832年,透纳再次来到了威尼斯,这次旅行使他充满了想象力并为他以后十年间的画风奠定了基调。

He went to all over the city on to the sketch books, sometimes using water colors to lay in themes. 他把整个城市都搬到了他的素描本中,有时还会用水彩画出景物的主色调。

And he made an image right here where I'm standing, 而且他还在我现在站着的地方作过画。

which he showed the Royal Academy in 1833, which looks across the lagoon, depicts all the famous architecture, like the Saint Marco Square, Bridge of Sighs 透纳的这幅画1833年在皇家美术学院展出。我们从画中可以看到环礁湖对面的名胜古迹,如圣马可广场、叹息桥等,

and he looks intently at the play of the sun on the water, and the dazzling colors around the place. 还可以看出画家有意地将湖上反射的阳光画得斑斓绚丽。

But he also depicts of man, painting at his easel, staring at this wall, and this is Canaletto, the most celebrated painter of Venice. 但他也会描绘人物,如画面中对着墙在画架上作画的著名威尼斯画家加纳莱托。

And in a way, what Turner was trying to do I think, with a little smile on his face perhaps, is to establish himself as the new master of painting the city. 我认为透纳从某种形式上是使自己成为描绘这座城市的新大师,可以想象当时他脸上可能还略带微笑。

Although Italy became a major source of inspiration through out the rest of his life, images of Britain continue to dominate Turner's canvases. 虽然此后他绘画时主要的灵感来源于意大利,但英国的形象仍然继续主导着他的画面。

He became a chronicler of contemporary history in 1834, when he produced stunning images of the burning of the houses of parliament. 当透纳1834年完成了这幅描绘国会大厦失火事件的大作后,他成了那个年代历史的记录者。

Turner had rushed to the scene along with hundreds of others to see the inferno on the banks of Thames. 透纳当时和许多其他人一样火速赶到现场观看泰晤士河岸的熊熊烈火。

Rather than using a camera, he made many hurried pencil sketches and water colors like this one, 他没有用照相机,而是用笔和水彩画出了几张像这样的速写,

which were worked up into two blazing oil painting soon after. 后来他根据这些速写画了两幅灿烂艳丽的油画。

When Turner arrived to display one of the oils to the British Institution and alternatively the Royal Academy, the painting was clearly unfinished. 当透纳把这两幅画中的一幅展示给英国美术促进会和皇家美术学院时他显然还没有画完。

It was, a fellow painter recalled, a mere dub of several colors without formal void, like chaos before the creation. 一位同事回忆说那简直就像万物成形前的混沌状态,各种颜色被混成了一体。

It was a common practice both at the Royal Academy and the British Institution, to have 3 days before the exhibition, where painters could make last minute alternations to their work. 当时皇家美术学院和英国美术促进会都规定在画展开幕前有3天时间供艺术家们对他们的作品做出最后的修改。

This was called varnishing day. 人们称之为展前最后修饰日。

And famously, Turner used the time not to touch up his work but often to paint entire canvases almost from scratch. 透纳出名的是,他不是用这个时间来润色,而是经常几乎从头画起。

As he grew older, Turner developed a reputation as an introverted scruffy eccentric. 晚年的透纳变得内向怪僻。

Despite his wealth, he never spent money on luxuries, he never married, and he had few friends 虽然他很富有,但他从不把钱花在奢侈品上。他没有结婚,朋友也很少。

In the final years of his life, he moved to a house in Chelsea over looking the river, where he tried to live in relative anonymity. 透纳晚年搬到切尔西小镇一个河边的房子里,过着隐居的生活。

But even though he lacked the social graces that were expected in regency in Victorian England, he was warmly accepted by patrons. 虽然他缺少英国维多利亚时期流行的那种绅士风度,他还是深受顾客和资助人的欢迎。

The critics though, were another matter. 但对他的评论就是另外一回事了。

His technique and use of paint in his late works were liken to custard, coal dust, cream, and perhaps most infamously, to soapsuds and whitewash, a comment made about one of Turner's radical late oil paintings exhibited in 1842. 他晚年的技法和用色被比作乳蛋糕、煤尘、奶油以及也许是最糟糕的——肥皂泡沫和石灰水,这是对一幅透纳晚年激进的油画所作的评价。这幅画展出于1842年。

Besides from being one of the Turner's more iconic and outlandish works, it also has the longest title in the history of art. 这幅画在透纳的作品属于较具代表性的画风古怪的画,除此以外,它的名字也是有史以来最长的。

It’s called Snow Storm, Steam Boat off a Harbor’s Mouth, Making Signals in Shallow Water and Going by the Lead.The Author Was in This Storm on the Night the Ariel Left Harwich. 这幅画名叫《暴风雪,汽船驶离港口,在浅水区发出信号并走在冰间通道。爱丽儿离开哈里奇之夜,作者在这场暴风雪中》。

Now what we get from that is that Turner himself is claiming to have been lashed to the mast on this boat, in this particular snow storm, 透纳声称他让人把自己捆在船桅上,亲身经历了这场暴风雪的洗礼。

and in fact he claimed that it have happened. 而且他还声称这场海难确实发生过。

But artists and historians searched high and low, and no one can find any record of a boat called Ariel leaving Harwich, 后来的艺术家和历史学家到处寻找相关线索,但没有人能找到一个名叫爱丽儿的汽船驶离哈里奇港口的记录。

and this led some people to assume that Turner is making this up. 这使得一些人猜测这是透纳自己编造出来的。

There is also the added fact that he's 67 at the time when the idea of a man at that age, strapping himself to a mast, exposing himself to the elements for hours is perhaps a tight far fetched. 况且透纳当时已经67岁,想想一个年近七十的老人让人把自己捆在船桅上,在惊涛骇浪中挣扎好几个小时,任何人都会觉得他的说法是可疑的。

Nonetheless, it shows that what Turner's real aim is, in this kind of painting and in a lot of his disaster paintings, which is to give a view from outside but also to try and convey an experience from inside. 不管怎样,这幅画表现了透纳在诸如此类的灾难画中真正想要表达的效果:提出从外界观察的看法,同时尝试传达来自内部的体验。

The steam boat itself is a relatively new invention. It’s invented at the beginning of 19th century. 汽船本身是一项较新的发明,出现在19世纪初。

But Turner obliterates technology and progress confronted by the force of nature, 但在透纳看来,科学技术和人类的进步在大自然的怒吼下是微不足道的。

and he grabs everything and anything, from his brushes, using both ends to his palette, knives and he uses his fingers too to drag the paint across in a sculptural way. 他拿起所有的东西,从两端并用的画笔到调色板到刻刀,还用上了手指,以雕塑的方式拖抹颜料。

What would be left was I think is the feeling of that career has come to a full circle. 我认为这幅画给人留下的是转了一大圈又回到原地的感觉。

We’re back at what we started without ideas of disaster, shipwreck and the sublime. 我们又回到了开始的地方,认识不到灾难、海难和崇高。

With this painting he continued the theme he'd used 30 years before, with Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, the domination of nature over man. 透纳用这幅画延续了30年前在《暴风雪——汉尼拔和他的军队翻越阿尔卑斯山》中使用的主题,即大自然凌驾于人类之上。

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