掠夺艺术品是为了留下伤口

Books and Arts -- Book Review

文学与艺术——书评

Conflict and culture -- Booty haul

冲突与文化——满载战利品

Plunder. By Cynthia Saltzman.

《战利品》，辛西娅·萨尔茨曼著。

In September 1797 Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops stripped a huge 16th-century painting by Paolo Veronese from the wall of a Venetian monastery.

1797年9月，拿破仑·波拿巴的军队从威尼斯一座修道院的墙上夺走了一幅由保罗·委罗内塞创作的16世纪巨幅油画。

Rolled around a wooden cylinder and packed into a crate smothered with tar, “The Wedding Feast at Cana” was shipped to the Louvre.

这幅《加纳的婚礼》被卷在一个木制圆筒上，装进一个涂满沥青的板条箱里，被运到了卢浮宫。

Plundering art was designed “to rattle foes” and “leave a wound close to their hearts”, writes Cynthia Saltzman.

辛西娅·萨尔茨曼写道，掠夺艺术品是为了“让敌人惊慌失措”，并“在他们心中留下伤口”。

Her perceptive book traces Napoleon’s systematic gathering of artistic treasures as he conquered Italy, focusing on Veronese’s masterpiece.

她的书极具洞察力，追溯了拿破仑在征服意大利时有计划地收集艺术珍品的过程，重点关注了委罗内塞的杰作。

“The Wedding Feast” depicts Jesus turning water into wine at a party in Galilee.

《加纳的婚礼》描绘了耶稣在加利利的一次宴会上把水变成酒的情景。

Veronese sets his version in aristocratic Venice.

委罗内塞将他这一版本设定在贵族威尼斯。

Marble columns and balustrades frame a boisterous cast of 130 life-size figures in sumptuous brocade and pearls.

大理石柱子和栏杆上勾勒有130个真人大小的人物，装饰着华丽的锦缎和珍珠。

Servants swarm around the guests; onlookers throw flowers into the air. At the centre of the dining table sits Jesus, his head encircled by a halo of golden light.

仆人们簇拥在客人周围；旁观者将鲜花抛向空中。餐桌中央坐着耶稣，他的头顶环绕着一圈金色的光晕。

For this vast work—a “wonder of the world”, as Giacomo Barri put it in 1671—Veronese was paid a third more than Tintoretto was for his “Crucifixion” a couple of years later.

贾可莫·巴里在1671年称这部巨作为“世界奇迹”，委罗内塞画这幅画获得的报酬比几年后丁托列托创作《基督受刑》的报酬高出三分之一。

Napoleon engineered his quarrel with Venice.

拿破仑精心安排了他与威尼斯的争端。

When a French ship tried to sail unauthorised into the lagoon in April 1797, the Venetians opened fire.

1797年4月，当一艘法国船只试图在未经授权的情况下驶入环礁湖时，威尼斯人开火了。

Several soldiers were killed; war was declared.

几名士兵阵亡；战争开始。

Venice soon surrendered.

威尼斯很快就投降了。

According to a treaty drawn up by Napoleon, the city promised to hand over 3m francs, five warships, 500 manuscripts and 20 paintings.

根据拿破仑起草的一份条约，威尼斯承诺上交300万法郎、5艘军舰、500份手稿和20幅油画。

A French art committee selected the works.

一个法国艺术委员会选出了这些作品。

Even amid the somewhat excessive detail of battle campaigns and negotiations, the book keeps sight of the rich personalities linked by the painting.

尽管对战争和谈判的细节描写有些过多，这本书还是保留了与这幅画相关的丰富的人物形象。

Veronese was a “first-draft”, speedy painter, rarely making mistakes or alterations (Titian, by contrast, was a ponderous reviser).

委罗内塞是一位“初稿”画家，作画速度很快，很少出错或进行修改（相比之下，提香则是一位喜欢不断修修改改的人）。

After meeting Napoleon in 1796, a Venetian governor described him as “a vain man who believes he is superhuman”.

在1796年与拿破仑会面后，一位威尼斯总督将他描述为“一个自认为是超人的虚荣之人”。

An envoy saw him as “anything but good-looking”.

一位使节认为他“长得跟好看沾不上边”。

Napoleon’s own claims to intellectual prowess—“a singular thing about me is my memory”—are put in perspective; he ranked 42nd out of 58 in his final military exam.

拿破仑自己所声称的智力非凡——“我唯一的独特之处就是我的记忆力”——确是如此；在他最后一次军队考试中，他在58名考生中排名第42位。

Jacques-Louis David’s portrait of 1805 obsequiously shows him charging across the Alps on a virile white horse.

1805年，雅克·路易斯·大卫奉承地画了一幅肖像画，画中的拿破仑骑着一匹雄壮的白马，正跃过阿尔卑斯山。

Ms Saltzman says he rode a donkey on the steepest parts.

萨尔茨曼女士说，他在最陡峭的地方也是骑驴子的。

She is very good on Napoleon’s justifications for theft.

关于拿破仑为偷窃辩护的这一段，她写得非常好。

The French, he said, were doing Europe a favour by rescuing these Italian masterpieces from neglect and obscurity.

拿破仑说是法国人解救了这些被忽视的默默无闻的意大利名作，这是在帮欧洲的忙。

Previously only a few could see them; at the Louvre they would be on display to everyone.

之前只有少数人能看到它们；如今在卢浮宫，它们将面向所有人展出。

“Spoils of war” became “a public good”, Ms Saltzman writes.

萨尔茨曼写道，“战利品”变成了“公共物品”。

Meanwhile Napoleon and his wife, Josephine de Beauharnais, dipped into the hoard to decorate their properties.

与此同时，拿破仑和他的妻子何塞芬·德·博哈奈把手伸向了这些藏品，用来装饰他们的房子。

After his defeat in 1815, France returned only half the artworks stolen from Italy.

1815年拿破仑战败后，法国只归还了一半从意大利偷走的艺术品。

“The Wedding Feast” was not among them, the Louvre’s boss claiming it would not survive the journey.

《加纳的婚礼》不在其中，卢浮宫的领导声称这幅画经受不住旅途的折腾。

Ms Saltzman ends with the painting’s life thereafter, including its influence on Vincent van Gogh and John Ruskin, and its concealment from the Nazis in assorted chateaux.

萨尔茨曼女士在书的结尾描述了这幅画此后的命运，包括它对文森特·梵高和约翰·拉斯金的影响，以及它被藏在各式城堡里以躲避纳粹的搜查。

Recently it has hung opposite, and in the shadow of, the “Mona Lisa”—a poignant end to an absorbing story of conflict and culture.

最近，它被挂在《蒙娜丽莎》的对面，笼罩在《蒙娜丽莎》的阴影之下。这是一个关于冲突和文化的引人入胜的故事的辛酸结局。