经济学人160:马内的肖像画 勇辟蹊径立异标新

　　The portraits of Edouard Manet
爱德华·马内的肖像画
Bold and strange
勇辟蹊径，立异标新
He worked to imbue¹ his paintings with life as no photograph could
马内画笔下的人物生动形象，照片难以匹敌
THREE portraits share a wall. In one a dark-eyed, forthright² beauty stares at the viewer; another features a scarlet-lipped, tormented³ woman ringed by an inky sea of grief. The final image is of a wary⁴ creature with a pert nose who shivers in her furs. Each is so different in mood and technique that it is remarkable⁵ that they were all painted by Edouard Manet between 1868 and 1874. More remarkable still, the sitters are the same woman: Berthe Morisot, a fellow painter. These paintings and others make a show of Manet's portraits at the Royal Academy in London one not to be missed.
面墙，三幅肖像画。第一幅，一位黑眼睛美人凝视前方，神情真挚，仿佛盯着观众；另一幅中，一位女子唇如烈焰，神情痛苦，四周弥漫着浓浓的悲伤。最后一幅，画中人鼻子小巧笔挺，一副小心谨慎的样子，在皮草里瑟瑟发抖。这三幅作品的基调与技巧迥然相异，却都是爱德华·马内在1868年至1874年间所创作的，实在了不起。更厉害的是，画中的模特儿是同一位女子：马内的同行—画家贝尔特·莫里索。这三幅画还有其他一些作品正在伦敦皇家艺术院的一个马内肖像画展览中展出，实在不容错过。
On view are some 50 paintings and works on paper. Inspired by the dramatic masterpieces of Francisco Goya and Diego Velázquez (all those luscious⁶ blacks), and Frans Hals's genius for portraying⁷ people with a gusto for life, these works trace Manet's influences and his efforts to master a vision of his own. Grouped by theme, the portraits are spotlit against dark walls as if each was a jewel. Many are, though the curators could have exercised more discretion⁸. A stronger show would have been a smaller one; arranged chronologically⁹, it could have revealed more about the artist.
展览有大约50幅油画及素描。这些作品是马内被弗朗西斯科·戈雅、迭戈·委拉兹开斯出色的大作所感染，又受佛兰斯·哈尔斯画人物栩栩如生的本领所启发而创作的，从中可以看出马内受到哪些前辈的影响以及他为追求个人风格所做的努力。这些肖像画按主题展出，挂在黑暗的墙上用聚光灯照亮，仿佛每幅画都是一件珠宝。其中很多确实被视为珠宝，不过馆长考虑得还不够周到。如果规模小些，展览会更有感染力，如果作品按时间顺序展出，人们就可以更加了解马内。
Seductive, witty¹⁰ and intelligent, Manet was also financially independent. Few of these portraits were commissions. His pianist wife can be seen in several glowing, affectionate works, and Manet painted some arresting portraits of his friends. The canvasses¹¹ of Victorine Meurent, a professional model, radiate a sexual charge. This is as true when she is wearing a simple shirt as when she is seen naked at a picnic in the company of fashionably dressed men in his famous painting “Le dejeuner sur l'herbe”. Meurent inspired haunting and unforgettable works, including Manet's greatest one, “Olympia”, which is unfortunately not in this show.
马内本人迷人、诙谐、睿智，经济也比较宽裕。这些肖像画往往不是受人委托而画的。好几幅色彩鲜艳、充满深情的作品里，都可以看见马内那位钢琴家妻子的身影，马内还为朋友们画了一些出彩的肖像画。有些油画画的是职业模特维多利安·莫涵，在画中她散发着一种性感的魅力。这种魅力不论莫涵只穿一件简单的衬衣，还是像马内另一幅著作《草地上的野餐》那样一丝不挂地与衣着入时的男子们野餐，你都能感受得到。莫涵激发了马内的灵感，使他画出了许多深入人心的作品，其中包括最著名的《奥林匹亚》，可惜这幅画不在本次展览中。
Manet hated the thought that his paintings would be seen jammed together. Here the hanging could not be more generous; a cynic might say stretched out. One gallery is devoted¹² to a map of Paris. “Music in the Tuileries Gardens”, a freely painted park scene from 1862, has a room to itself. This crowded vision of men in top hats and women in fashionable bonnets¹³ is not actually a portrait, but viewers can make out the figures of Manet and Charles Baudelaire, a poet. Unstaged and exuberant¹⁴, his evocation¹⁵ of the bourgeoisie at play has been called “the first truly modern picture”. It was brutally¹⁶ attacked at the time.
马内不喜欢自己的作品被挂得密密麻麻地展出。而这次，展览场地可谓宽敞至极，有人可能会挖苦说简直是空旷。有个展厅专门用来展览一幅巴黎地图。《杜乐丽花园中的音乐》也有一个专门的展厅，画中人山人海，男士们戴着大礼帽，女士们戴着时尚软帽。其实这幅不算肖像画，不过观众可以从中认出马内和诗人查尔斯·波德莱尔。这幅活泼随性的资产阶级玩乐图如今被尊为“第一幅真正的现代画”，但在当时却遭到猛烈抨击。
The critics shredded¹⁷ Manet. They mocked his inconsistent style; his refusal to respect conventions. Their vicious words were like “lashes of a whip”, Manet once wrote. Yet he had contemporary champions, including Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarme, a symbolist poet, and Emile Zola, a novelist. Younger artists, such as the nascent¹⁸ Impressionists, also admired him. Pierre-Auguste Renoir observed that Manet was as important to them “as Cimabue or Giotto were to the Italians of the Quattrocento.” His influence continues. Rineke Dijkstra, a photographer, credits Manet with helping¹⁹ inspire contemporary large-format portraits.
那时，评论人士将马内批得体无完肤。他们讥讽马内的画风前后矛盾，笑话他不尊重传统。他们的毒舌就像“鞭子的抽打”，马内曾写道。但也有一些同时代的人拥护马内，包括波德莱尔、象征主义诗人斯忒法·马拉美及小说家埃米尔·左拉。年轻一代的画家也很崇拜他，如早期的印象派画家。皮埃尔-奥古斯特·雷阿诺说，马内之于其拥护者，就如契马布埃或乔托之于十五世纪的意大利那样重要。时至今日，马内的影响力依然未减。摄影师日尼科·迪克斯特拉认为，马内是现代大幅肖像画发展的功臣。
As it happens, Manet's own style was in part a response to the rise of portrait photography. By the time he was in his 30s it seemed “everybody” wanted such a photograph, himself included. He understood this presented a challenge for painters, and so he set out to make his portraits “boldly strange”, argues Carol Armstrong, an art historian. This show may not be without disappointments, but it offers ample evidence of why Manet is revered²⁰.
当时恰逢人物摄影兴起，马内自己的画风多少受此影响。在马内三十多岁那个年代，似乎“每个人”都想要一张自己的照片，马内也不例外。美术史家卡罗·阿姆斯特朗认为，马内深知摄影给画家带来了挑战，于是他打算创作出“大胆而新奇”的肖像画。这次展览可能会有不尽人意之处，但也能充分说明为什么马内如此备受推崇。

1 imbue   

v.灌输(某种强烈的情感或意见)，感染

参考例句：

• He managed to imbue his employees with team spirit.他成功激发起雇员的团队精神。
• Kass is trying to imbue physics into simulated worlds.凯斯想要尝试的就是把物理学引入模拟世界。

2 forthright   

adj.直率的，直截了当的 [同]frank

参考例句：

• It's sometimes difficult to be forthright and not give offence.又直率又不得罪人，这有时很难办到。
• He told me forthright just why he refused to take my side.他直率地告诉我他不肯站在我这一边的原因。

3 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

4 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。

5 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

6 luscious   

adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的

参考例句：

• The watermelon was very luscious.Everyone wanted another slice.西瓜很可口，每个人都想再来一片。
• What I like most about Gabby is her luscious lips!我最喜欢的是盖比那性感饱满的双唇！

7 portraying   

v.画像( portray的现在分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The artist has succeeded in portraying my father to the life. 那位画家把我的父亲画得惟妙惟肖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ding Ling was good at portraying figures through careful and refined description of human psychology. 《莎菲女士的日记》是丁玲的成名作，曾引起强烈的社会反响。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

8 discretion   

n.谨慎；随意处理

参考例句：

• You must show discretion in choosing your friend.你择友时必须慎重。
• Please use your best discretion to handle the matter.请慎重处理此事。

9 chronologically   

ad. 按年代的

参考例句：

• Manuscripts show cases arranged topically not chronologically. 从原稿看案例是按专题安排的而不是按年代次序安排的。
• Though the exhibition has been arranged chronologically, there are a few exceptions. 虽然展览的时间便已经安排好了，但是也有少数的例外。

10 witty   

adj.机智的，风趣的

参考例句：

• Her witty remarks added a little salt to the conversation.她的妙语使谈话增添了一些风趣。
• He scored a bull's-eye in their argument with that witty retort.在他们的辩论中他那一句机智的反驳击中了要害。

11 canvasses   

n.检票员，游说者，推销员( canvass的名词复数 )v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的第三人称单数 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查

参考例句：

• He canvasses by singing, and the votes have really increased a lot. 他唱歌为自己拉票，票数还真是增长了不少呢。 来自互联网
• Even the canvasses on the restaurant's walls are up for sale. 连餐厅墙上的绘画作品也能出售。 来自互联网

12 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

13 bonnets   

n.童帽( bonnet的名词复数 )；（烟囱等的）覆盖物；（苏格兰男子的）无边呢帽；（女子戴的）任何一种帽子

参考例句：

• All the best bonnets of the city were there. 城里戴最漂亮的无边女帽的妇女全都到场了。 来自辞典例句
• I am tempting you with bonnets and bangles and leading you into a pit. 我是在用帽子和镯子引诱你，引你上钩。 来自飘（部分）

14 exuberant   

adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的

参考例句：

• Hothouse plants do not possess exuberant vitality.在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。
• All those mother trees in the garden are exuberant.果园里的那些母树都长得十分茂盛。

15 evocation   

n. 引起，唤起 n. <古> 召唤，招魂

参考例句：

• Against this brilliant evocation of airlessness we may put Whitman's view of the poet. 我们从他这段批评诗人无生气的精采论述中，可以看出惠特曼对于诗人的看法。
• It prefers evocation spells and illusions to help it disguise It'self. 他更喜欢塑能系法术和可以辅助伪装自己的幻术。

16 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

17 shredded   

shred的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Serve the fish on a bed of shredded lettuce. 先铺一层碎生菜叶，再把鱼放上，就可以上桌了。
• I think Mapo beancurd and shredded meat in chilli sauce are quite special. 我觉得麻婆豆腐和鱼香肉丝味道不错。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 nascent   

adj.初生的，发生中的

参考例句：

• That slim book showed the Chinese intelligentsia and the nascent working class.那本小册子讲述了中国的知识界和新兴的工人阶级。
• Despite a nascent democracy movement,there's little traction for direct suffrage.尽管有过一次新生的民主运动，但几乎不会带来直接选举。

19 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

20 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句