旅行的藝術:藝術 Ⅶ 令人眼界大開的藝術-4

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在客房里有一本大部頭的關于凡·高的書。到這里的第一個晚上我無法入睡，因此讀了其中的幾章，我貪婪地閱讀著，直到粉色的黎明映現(xiàn)在窗戶的角落，才讓書頁翻開著而沉沉睡去。

There was a large book on him in the guest bedroom and, because I was unable to sleep on my first night, I read several chapters, eventually falling asleep with the volume open on my lap as a trace of dawn-red appeared in the corner of the window.

我醒得很晚，醒來時發(fā)現(xiàn)主人們已經(jīng)前往圣雷米了，他們留下一張字條告訴我他們會在午飯時間回來。早餐放在臺階上的一張金屬桌上，我以極快的速度，接連吃了3個巧克力面包。我感到很不好意思，吃的時候一直在留意著管家，擔心她會把我狼吞虎咽的情形告訴給她的主人。

I awoke late and found that my hosts had gone to Saint-Rémy, leaving a note to say that they would be back at lunchtime. Breakfast was laid out on a metal table on the terrace and I ate three pains au chocolat in guilty, rapid succession, while keeping one eye out for a housekeeper, whom I feared might put an unflattering spin on my gourmandise to her employers.

這天天氣晴朗，干燥而寒冷的西北風吹亂了臨近田地里的麥穗。昨天我也坐在這個位置，可是直到現(xiàn)在我才注意到在花園的盡頭有兩棵高大的柏樹——這一發(fā)現(xiàn)與晚上我所讀到的凡·高關于柏樹的描述不無關系。從1888年到1889年，凡·高創(chuàng)作了一系列關于柏樹的素描。“它們一直占據(jù)著我的思想，”他對他的弟弟說，“令我驚訝的是，它們仍沒有像我所看到的那樣被描繪過。柏樹的線條和比例就像埃及的方尖石塔（金字塔）一樣美。它的綠色有一種如此獨特的氣質。這種綠是在一片充滿陽光的風景上潑灑上的黑色，像是最有趣，也最難彈奏正確的黑色音符。”

It was a clear day with a mistral blowing, which ruffled the heads of the wheat in an adjacent field. I had sat in this spot the day before, but only now did I notice that there were two large cypresses growing at the end of the garden-a discovery that was not unconnected to the chapter I had read in the night on Van Gogh's treatment of them. He had sketched a series of cypresses in 1888 and 1889. 'They are constantly occupying my thoughts,' he told his brother, 'it astonishes me that they have not yet been done as I see them. The cypress is as beautiful of line and proportion as an Egyptian obelisk. And the green has a quality of such distinction. It is a splash of black in a sunny landscape, but it is one of the most interesting black notes, and the most difficult to hit off exactly.'

關于柏樹，有哪些是凡·高注意到了，卻為其他畫家所忽略了的呢？有一部分，是柏樹在風中擺動的一些姿態(tài)。由于凡·高的作品，特別是1889年畫的《柏樹》和《麥田和柏樹》這兩幅畫，我走到花園盡頭，仔細研究那兩棵柏樹在北風中特別的姿態(tài)。

What did Van Gogh notice about cypresses that others had not？ In part, the way they move in the wind. I walked to the end of the garden and there studied, thanks to certain works (Cypresses and Wheat Field and Cypresses of 1889 in particular) their distinctive behaviour in the mistral.

柏樹獨特的擺動背后有著建筑學上的考量。與松樹不同，松樹的枝葉是從它的頂部向下緩慢地下垂，柏樹的枝葉則是從地面往上躥升。樹干異常的短，而最頂部的1/3處全是由枝條組成的。在風中，橡樹的枝條搖擺不定而主干屹立不動，但是柏樹則整棵樹都搖來搖去，而且由于柏樹的枝葉是沿著樹干周圍的許多點生長出來的，柏樹在風中就好像是繞著不同的軸彎曲。從遠處看，由于擺動的幅度不一致，柏樹看上去像是同時被幾股來自不同方向的風吹得搖擺不定。它那類似圓錐的外形（柏樹的直徑很少有超過一米的），使它呈現(xiàn)出一種類似火焰的形態(tài)，似乎在風中緊張不安地搖曳。這一切是凡·高注意到并希望其他人看到的。

There are architectural reasons behind this movement. Unlike pine branches, which descend gently downwards from the top of their tree, the fronds of the cypress thrust upwards from the ground. The cypress's trunk is, moreover, unusually short, with the top third of the tree being made up wholly of branches. Whereas an oak will shake its branches in the wind while its trunk remains immobile, the cypress will bend and, furthermore, because of the way the fronds grow from a number of points along the circumference of the trunk, it will seem to bend along different axes. From a distance, the lack of synchronicity in its movements makes it look as though the cypress were being shifted by several gusts of wind blowing from different angles. With its cone-like shape (cypresses rarely exceed a metre in diameter), the tree takes on the appearance of a flame flickering nervously in the wind. All this Van Gogh noticed and would make others see.

凡·高在普羅旺斯待了幾年以后，奧斯卡·王爾德評論說，在惠斯勒 [14] 畫出倫敦的霧之前，倫敦并沒有霧。在凡·高畫出普羅旺斯的柏樹以前，普羅旺斯的柏樹一定也少得多。

A few years after Van Gogh's stay in Provence, Oscar Wilde remarked that there had been no fog in London before Whistler painted it. There had surely been fewer cypresses in Provence before Van Gogh painted them.

凡·高：《柏樹》，1889年

橄欖樹在過去也很少引人注意。昨天，我還對一株矮小的橄欖不屑一顧，但是凡·高1889年的作品《橄欖樹、黃色的天空和太陽》及《橄欖林：橘紅的天空》使橄欖樹成為了主角，展現(xiàn)了它們的樹干和樹葉的形態(tài)。我現(xiàn)在才發(fā)現(xiàn)我原來沒注意到這種種的棱角：一棵棵橄欖樹就好像三叉戟，被一股巨大的力量投擲進土壤中。橄欖樹的枝葉看起來也力道十足，仿佛它們是彎曲著的臂膀，隨時準備出擊。很多樹的葉子看起來軟趴趴的，像是擺久了的萵苣葉子，但橄欖樹的葉片結實，銀亮，看起來神采奕奕、精力旺盛。

Olive trees must also have been less noticeable. I had the previous day dismissed one example as a squat bush-like thing but, in Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun and Olive Grove: Orange Sky of 1889, Van Gogh brought out-that is, foregrounded-the olives' trunks and leaves. I now noted an angularity which I had earlier missed: the trees resemble tridents that have been flung from a great height into the soil. There is a ferocity to the olive trees' branches too, as if they were flexed arms ready to hit out. And whereas the leaves of many other trees make one think of limp lettuce emptied over racks of naked branches, the taut silvery olive leaves give an impression of alertness and contained energy.

凡·高：《麥田與柏樹》，1889年

跟隨著凡·高，我也開始注意到普羅旺斯在色彩上一些不同尋常的地方。這和這里的氣候有關。從阿爾卑斯山順著羅訥山谷吹來的干燥寒冷的北風，有規(guī)律地吹凈天空中的云朵和水氣，在天空中留下一片純凈飽滿而沒有一絲白色的藍。同時，地中海型氣候和高水位以及良好的灌溉，使植物格外地繁茂。這里沒有缺水之虞，植物可以自由自在地生長，盡量利用南方的光和熱。并且，很幸運的是，空氣中沒有濕氣，因此，不像熱帶的氣候多霧潮濕，樹木，花朵和植物的顏色因而格外鮮明。無云的天空、干燥的空氣和水分充足且鮮艷的植物，這些因素相結合使普羅旺斯充滿明艷、生動的對比色。

After Van Gogh, I began to notice that there was something unusual about the colours of Provence as well. There are climatic reasons for this. The mistral, blowing along the Rhône valley from the Alps, regularly clears the sky of clouds and moisture, leaving it a pure rich blue without a trace of white. At the same time, a high water table and good irrigation promote a plant life of singular lushness for a Mediterranean climate. With no water shortages to restrict its growth, the vegetation draws full benefit from the great advantages of the south: light and heat. And fortuitously, because there is no moisture in the air, there is in Provence, unlike in the tropics, no mistiness to dampen and meld the colours of the trees, flowers and plants. The combination of a cloudless sky, dry air, water and rich vegetation leaves the region dominated by vivid primary, contrasting colours.

凡·高之前的畫家常常忽視這些相互形成對比的色彩，而只是將它們畫作補充的色彩，就像克勞德和普桑傳授的技法。比如康斯坦丁和畢道爾描繪的普羅旺斯，完全在柔和的藍色與棕色中細微地變化。凡·高因大家忽略了普羅旺斯的自然色彩而忿忿不平：“大多數(shù)的畫家對色彩的研究不深……沒有看到南方的黃色、橙色、硫磺色，并且如果有一個畫家用眼看到了他們沒有看到的色彩，他們就說這個畫家瘋了。”因此，凡·高摒棄了傳統(tǒng)的明暗對比法的技巧，大膽用原色在畫布上揮灑，將顏色的對比表現(xiàn)得淋漓盡致：紅與綠，黃與紫，藍與橙。“這里的色彩非常精美，”他告訴他的妹妹，“葉子新鮮時是一種豐潤的綠，是那種我們在北方很少看到的綠。當它枯萎時，蒙上了灰塵，它仍沒有失去它的美，因為那個時候整片景色已經(jīng)染上了各種色調的金色，綠色的金，黃色的金，粉色的金……這種金色色調與藍色相結合，有水的寶藍，勿忘我的靛藍，特別是亮麗明艷的鈷藍。”

Painters before Van Gogh had tended to ignore these contrasts and to paint only in complementary colours, as Claude and Poussin had taught them to do. Constantin and Bidauld, for example, had depicted Provence entirely in subtle gradations of soft blue and brown. Van Gogh was incensed by this neglect of the landscape's natural colour scheme: 'The majority of ［painters］, because they aren't colourists … do not see yellow, orange or sulphur in the South, and they call a painter mad if he sees with eyes other than theirs.' So he abandoned their chiaroscuro technique and soaked his canvases in primary colours, always arranging them in such a way that their contrast would be maximized: red with green, yellow with purple, blue with orange. 'The colour is exquisite here,' he wrote to his sister. 'When the green leaves are fresh, it is a rich green, the likes of which we seldom see in the North. Even when it gets scorched and dusty, the landscape does not lose its beauty, for then it gets tones of gold of various tints: green-gold, yellow-gold, pink-gold … And this combined with the blue-from the deepest royal blue of the water to the blue of the forget-me-nots; a cobalt, particularly clear bright blue.'

我的眼開始習慣于從（凡·高）帆布畫上的主色去看這個世界。目光所及的每一個地方，我都能夠看到最主要的色彩之間的對比。在房子旁邊有一片紫色的薰衣草與黃色的麥田毗鄰。房子的屋頂是橙色的，與純凈藍色的天空相映。綠色的草地上點綴著紅色的罌粟花，草地的四周則是夾竹桃。

My own eyes grew attuned to see around me the colours that had dominated Van Gogh's canvases. Everywhere I looked, I could see primary colours in contrast. Beside the house was a violet-coloured field of lavender next to a yellow field of wheat. The roofs of the buildings were orange against a pure blue sky. Green meadows were dotted with red poppies and bordered by oleanders.

這里，不是只有白天才色彩繽紛。凡·高也為夜空上了色。以前，普羅旺斯的畫家所描繪的夜空總是一片黑上點綴著些許小白點。然而，當我們在一個明朗的夜晚，遠離亮著燈的房屋和街燈，坐在普羅旺斯的天空下，我們會注意到天空實際上包含著豐富的色彩：在星星之間，似乎有一種深藍、紫色、或是暗綠，而星星本身卻呈現(xiàn)出一種蒼白的黃色、橙色或綠色，放射出的光環(huán)遠遠超過了它們自己狹窄的周邊。就像凡·高向他妹妹解釋的：“夜晚甚至比白天更加色彩斑斕……只有你注意著它，你才會看到有些星星是淡黃色的，其他的星星有一種粉紅色的光芒，或者泛著綠色、藍色，和勿忘我的光輝。不用說，只在藍黑背景上放置白色的小點，顯然是不夠的。”

It was not only the day that abounded in colours. Van Gogh brought out the colours of the night as well. Previous Provençal painters had depicted the night sky as groupings of little white dots on a dark background. However, when we sit under the Provençal sky on a clear night far from the glow of houses and street-lamps, we notice that the sky in fact contains a profusion of colours: between the stars, it seems a deep blue, violet or very dark green, whereas the stars themselves appear a pale yellow, orange or green, diffusing rings of light far beyond their own narrow circumference. As Van Gogh explained to his sister: 'The night is even more richly coloured than the day … If only you pay attention to it you will see that certain stars are citronyellow, others have a pink glow, or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without expatiating on this theme it should be clear that putting little white dots on a blue-black surface is not enough.'