美国国家公共电台 NPR Tiffany Is Known For Lamps And Stained Glass, But He Made Magical Mosaics, Too

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Tiffany Studios is known for its stained glass lampshades. But Louis Comfort Tiffany and his artisans did a lot more than that. One of the lesser-known aspects of their work is on display at the Corning Museum of Glass in western New York. Karen Michel reports on the first ever exhibition of Tiffany mosaics².

LINDSY PARROTT: Trying every door...

KAREN MICHEL, BYLINE³: Sometimes being a museum curator is being a detective.

KELLY CONWAY: It's so tantalizing⁴ from the outside.

MICHEL: Kelly Conway and Lindsy Parrott have been scouring⁵ archives and eBay, trying to track down Tiffany's glass mosaics, some of them hiding in plain sight all over the country. A couple of clues brings them to the Redeemed⁶ Christian⁷ Fellowship Church of Prophecy in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. A delivery man leads us to a side door and Pastor⁸ Dr. Kenrick McBean.

KENRICK MCBEAN: What company again?

PARROTT: It's from a museum - the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass and the Corning Museum of Glass.

MICHEL: After a tour scored by religious music playing throughout the church, Pastor McBean ushers⁹ us into the sanctuary¹⁰.

PARROTT: Wow.

CONWAY: Oh, my goodness.

PARROTT: Oh, my gosh.

MICHEL: For the curators, it was an "Indiana Jones" moment.

CONWAY: The decoration is here. It's just painted over. Look at the columns.

PARROTT: That's what we were hoping.

CONWAY: That's what we were hoping.

PARROTT: Oh, my goodness.

CONWAY: Look. You can see the ghosting of it behind the faux marbling.

PARROTT: Oh, you can.

CONWAY: Yes.

PARROTT: This is amazing. You've just made all of our lives.

CONWAY: We have been dreaming about this for about the last year.

MICHEL: Twelve columns painted over in green, faux marble. But under a thin coat, you can't quite see, but you clearly can feel the green and orange and blue and red glass stones embedded¹¹ in each column.

CONWAY: Wow.

MICHEL: Overhead, a Tiffany stained glass window among the other cathedral-worthy windows.

PARROTT: It is still here.

MICHEL: Pastor McBean knew he had the window but not the mosaics, which is the point of the exhibition co-curated by Lindsy Parrott, director of the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass.

PARROTT: It's an enormously understudied aspect of Tiffany's career, and he is such a well-known name. But this is one facet¹² of his artistry that has been under-explored, and the stuff is ravishing.

MICHEL: Louis Comfort Tiffany had gone on a grand tour of Europe, as befitted respectable gentry¹³ of the late 1800s. He was the son of the luxury jeweler. He'd seen the magnificent mosaics in Italy and came back with ideas, says the Corning Museum's Kelly Conway.

CONWAY: An inkwell that just has many different colors of iridescent¹⁴ glass to a beautiful mosaic¹ fireplace that shows musical instruments to all of this transparent¹⁵ glass used in a lamp. They were in homes. They were in libraries. They were banks and churches and all kinds of public spaces. So Tiffany really did outfit¹⁶ the architecture of so many spaces in American buildings.

MICHEL: One wall of the exhibition is filled with a black and white photograph of the Tiffany studio. And notably¹⁷, there are lots of women among the workers. Again, curator Lindsy Parrott...

PARROTT: Women were certainly working as artisans. There were certain aspects of the decorative¹⁸ arts or applied¹⁹ arts that were considered kind of genteel and appropriate for these young women to be employed in and pursuing. But this was pretty muscular work.

MICHEL: Visitors can learn how that work was done.

ERIC MEEK²⁰: So we're going to be demonstrating how sheet glass or plate glass was made a long time ago.

MICHEL: Eric Meek is the manager of hot glass programs at the Corning Museum of Glass and a glass artist himself.

MEEK: It takes an extremely skilled, experienced and really gifted team of glass workers. And a team of glass workers is always three to 10 people. And that's just to make the raw material. And then they took these, and they cut them out. And then the selectors that were putting the mosaic together would select and really create the painting using these color blocks. So the more you learn about Tiffany Studios and these mosaics, the more you're amazed.

MICHEL: You can even make your own or blow glass to feel part of a process that made Louis Comfort Tiffany a household name. For NPR News, I'm Karen Michel.

(SOUNDBITE OF TYCHO'S "GLIDER")

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 mosaics   

n.马赛克( mosaic的名词复数 )；镶嵌；镶嵌工艺；镶嵌图案

参考例句：

• The panel shows marked similarities with mosaics found elsewhere. 这块嵌板和在其他地方找到的镶嵌图案有明显的相似之处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The unsullied and shining floor was paved with white mosaics. 干净明亮的地上镶嵌着白色图案。 来自辞典例句

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 tantalizing   

adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的；煽情的v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This was my first tantalizing glimpse of the islands. 这是我第一眼看见的这些岛屿的动人美景。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have only vague and tantalizing glimpses of his power. 我们只能隐隐约约地领略他的威力，的确有一种可望不可及的感觉。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

5 scouring   

擦[洗]净，冲刷，洗涤

参考例句：

• The police are scouring the countryside for the escaped prisoners. 警察正在搜索整个乡村以捉拿逃犯。
• This is called the scouring train in wool processing. 这被称为羊毛加工中的洗涤系列。

6 redeemed   

adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• She has redeemed her pawned jewellery. 她赎回了当掉的珠宝。
• He redeemed his watch from the pawnbroker's. 他从当铺赎回手表。

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

9 ushers   

n.引座员( usher的名词复数 )；招待员；门房；助理教员v.引，领，陪同( usher的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Seats clicked, ushers bowed while he looked blandly on. 座位发出啪啦啪啦的声响，领座员朝客人们鞠躬，而他在一边温和殷勤地看着。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• The minister then offers a brief prayer of dedication, and the ushers return to their seats. 于是牧师又做了一个简短的奉献的祈祷，各招待员也各自回座位。 来自辞典例句

10 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

11 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

12 facet   

n.(问题等的)一个方面；(多面体的)面

参考例句：

• He has perfected himself in every facet of his job.他已使自己对工作的各个方面都得心应手。
• Every facet of college life is fascinating.大学生活的每个方面都令人兴奋。

13 gentry   

n.绅士阶级，上层阶级

参考例句：

• Landed income was the true measure of the gentry.来自土地的收入是衡量是否士绅阶层的真正标准。
• Better be the head of the yeomanry than the tail of the gentry.宁做自由民之首，不居贵族之末。

14 iridescent   

adj.彩虹色的，闪色的

参考例句：

• The iridescent bubbles were beautiful.这些闪着彩虹般颜色的大气泡很美。
• Male peacocks display their iridescent feathers for prospective female mates.雄性孔雀为了吸引雌性伴侣而展现了他们彩虹色的羽毛。

15 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

16 outfit   

n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装

参考例句：

• Jenney bought a new outfit for her daughter's wedding.珍妮为参加女儿的婚礼买了一套新装。
• His father bought a ski outfit for him on his birthday.他父亲在他生日那天给他买了一套滑雪用具。

17 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

18 decorative   

adj.装饰的，可作装饰的

参考例句：

• This ware is suitable for decorative purpose but unsuitable for utility.这种器皿中看不中用。
• The style is ornate and highly decorative.这种风格很华丽，而且装饰效果很好。

19 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

20 meek   

adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的

参考例句：

• He expects his wife to be meek and submissive.他期望妻子温顺而且听他摆布。
• The little girl is as meek as a lamb.那个小姑娘像羔羊一般温顺。