旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅷ 對美的擁有-6

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我們可能從繪畫中獲得的另一個好處是：我們可以對某些風(fēng)景和建筑吸引我們的深層原因有一種清醒了解。我們?yōu)樽约旱钠肺徽业搅私忉?，我們培養(yǎng)了一種“審美能力”，一種對美和丑進(jìn)行判斷的能力。我們更加確切地知道一座建筑物所缺乏的什么，而這也是我們不喜歡它的理由；同時我們也可了解我們贊嘆的建筑之美緣何而起。我們更快地分析一種令我們感動的景色，并且明確指出它令我們感動的力量從何而來（“石灰?guī)r和夕陽的結(jié)合”，或是“樹枝越近河邊越稀”）。我們從一種麻木的“我喜歡這個”轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)?ldquo;我喜歡這個，因?yàn)?hellip;…”，最后也能歸結(jié)出自己喜歡的特點(diǎn)。即使我們只是在做著試驗(yàn)和嘗試，關(guān)于美的法則也會進(jìn)入腦中：光從旁邊照向物體會比從頂部照射下來更好；灰色與綠色搭配很好；一條街要給人以空間感，建筑物的高度不能超過街道的寬度。

Another benefit we may derive from drawing is a conscious understanding of the reasons behind our attraction to certain landscapes and buildings. We find explanations for our tastes, we develop an 'aesthetic', a capacity to assert judgements about beauty and ugliness. We determine with greater precision what is missing in a building we don't like and what contributes to the beauty of the one we do. We more quickly analyse a scene that impresses us and pin down whence its power arises ('the combination of limestone and evening sun', 'the way the trees taper down to the river'). We move from a numb 'I like this' to 'I like this because … ', and then in turn towards a generalization about the likeable. Even if they are only held in exploratory, tentative ways, laws of beauty come to mind: it is better for light to strike objects from the side than from overhead; grey goes well with green; for a street to convey a sense of space, the buildings must only be as high as the street is wide.

有了這種清晰的了解，更加牢固的記憶方可形成。這樣一來就再無必要將我們的名字刻在龐培石柱上了。用羅斯金的話說，繪畫使我們得以“定住即將消逝的云彩、顫抖的葉子及變幻的陰影”。

And on the basis of this conscious awareness, more solid memories can be founded. Carving our name on Pompey's Pillar begins to seem unnecessary. Drawing allows us, in Ruskin's account, 'to stay the cloud in its fading, the leaf in its trembling, and the shadows in their changing'.

總結(jié)在四年的教學(xué)及編寫繪畫手冊的時間里他所嘗試做的事情，羅斯金解釋說，他被一種渴望所驅(qū)使，這種渴望是“指引人們在物質(zhì)世界中，把注意力精確地放置于上帝的作品所展現(xiàn)出來的美麗”?；蛟S有必要引述羅斯金的一篇文字，文章中羅斯金明確指出，在一個具體的層面上，這種聽上去有些奇怪的野心究竟可能包括什么：“讓兩個人外出散步；一個是優(yōu)秀的素描家，另一個則對這類東西毫無喜好。他們順著一條林陰道往前走時，對這片景色的感受會有著很大的區(qū)別。一個將看到一條小路和樹木；他會認(rèn)為樹是綠色的，但是他不會對此作任何的思考；他會看到陽光閃耀，并覺得很舒服，僅此而已！但是素描家會看到什么？他的眼睛習(xí)慣去探求美的原因，美的最細(xì)微的部分。他抬頭向上看，觀察陣雨般散射的道道陽光是如何從頭頂閃爍的樹葉間灑落下來，直到林間充滿翠綠的光。他會這里看看，那里看看，一條樹枝從樹葉的遮蔽中伸出來，他會看到翠綠色的苔蘚散發(fā)的寶石般的光芒，還會看到色彩斑斕的地衣，白色和藍(lán)色，紫色和紅色都交織、混合在一起，織成一片鮮艷奪目的錦緞。接著（他會看到）凸凹不平的樹干和扭曲的樹根，樹根在陡峭的河岸像蛇一樣地延伸開去，而岸邊鋪著草皮的斜坡，被有著千萬種顏色的花朵鑲嵌。這難道不值得細(xì)細(xì)品味嗎？然而，如果你不會素描，你只會經(jīng)過這條綠色的小路，當(dāng)你再次回到家時，你不會覺得有什么值得一提或回味再三，你僅僅是走過了一條這樣的小路。”

Summing up what he had attempted to do in four years of teaching and writing manuals on drawing, Ruskin explained that he had been motivated by a desire to 'direct people's attention accurately to the beauty of God's work in the material universe'. It may be worth quoting in full a passage in which Ruskin demonstrated what exactly, at a concrete level, this strange-sounding ambition might involve: 'Let two persons go out for a walk; the one a good sketcher, the other having no taste of the kind. Let them go down a green lane. There will be a great difference in the scene as perceived by the two individuals. The one will see a lane and trees; he will perceive the trees to be green, though he will think nothing about it; he will see that the sun shines, and that it has a cheerful effect; and that's all！ But what will the sketcher see? His eye is accustomed to search into the cause of beauty, and penetrate the minutest parts of loveliness. He looks up, and observes how the showery and subdivided sunshine comes sprinkled down among the gleaming leaves overhead, till the air is filled with the emerald light. He will see here and there a bough emerging from the veil of leaves, he will see the jewel brightness of the emerald moss and the variegated and fantastic lichens, white and blue, purple and red, all mellowed and mingled into a single garment of beauty. Then come the cavernous trunks and the twisted roots that grasp with their snake-like coils at the steep bank, whose turfy slope is inlaid with flowers of a thousand dyes. Is not this worth seeing? Yet if you are not a sketcher you will pass along the green lane, and when you come home again, have nothing to say or to think about it, but that you went down such and such a lane.'

羅斯金：《光滑的梭子蟹》，1870—1871年